Every Minute Counts
by neoncolorexplosion
Summary: Due to her broken family, Andie lives in both worlds: the Greaser's and Soc's. She does everything she can to protect her half-sister. But when she fails to protect her, her life starts to fall apart and the gang is there to catch her when she falls. Every minute counts as the gang fights to save her from herself. Rated M for language, violence, sexual abuse, & self harm.
1. Chapter 1

"Hurry up, Pony! You're going to be late for school!" I hollered as I pulled my DX shirt on in the kitchen. I grabbed a couple eggs to make for Pony's breakfast.

"I'm coming, Soda. Geez I don't know what your rush is. I always end up getting to school on time," Pony said shuffling out of his room to the bathroom. His hair was still a mess; he had clearly just gotten out of bed.

Just then, I heard the screen door slam shut.

"Hey, handsome," I heard a voice tease behind my back.

I looked behind me to see who it was. While I could only see the hunched over back of the person, I instantly knew it was Andie who entered the house and was now searching for the chocolate cake. Little did she know that I ate the last bit of it last night for snack. I guess I was staring at her ass because the next I heard was Darry's voice.

"Why don't you avert your gaze and stare at something else, huh Little Buddy?" he said.

"Ohh.." I said, not realizing I had been staring at her.

At this Andie popped her head out of the fridge and looked behind her.

"Like what you see?" she laughed, wiggling her butt at me while raising her eyebrows in a playful, flirty way.

"Do you guys not have anymore cake?" she asked, changing the subject.

"Nah, I ate the last of it last night," I replied.

She scrunched her mouth to the right side of her face, something she usually does when she's disappointed or disgusted.

"I'll make some after work though," I told her. She smiled at that. Truth be told, rarely does this house not have chocolate cake in it.

"Pony! Come on! You gotta go! You still need to eat breakfast!" Darry hollered.

"Yeah, Ponyboy. Hurry up! I need my big, strong Greaser to walk with me to school," beckoned Andie.

I laughed. Andie did not need Pony to protect her, she was tough enough.

You see Andie is not your typical Greaser girl. While she lives on the Eastside with the rest of us, she comes from a broken family. Her mom left her and her dad when she was 4 for some guy named, Ralph. Andie's mom had been two-timing her dad and gotten pregnant; seeing how Ralph could provide a better economic situation for her and Andie's half-sister, Andie's mom jumped at the chance to move to the Westside. Now-a-days Andie commutes between the two different households every other week. As a result, the Socs will tolerate her, but only when her half-sister is around. The rest of the time they target her because they see her as a "poser" for living on the Westside when she stays with her mom.

She pretends that everything is fine, but I know better than that. Ralph creates this façade for strangers to think he welcomes Andie into their house, but I observed differently; that whole family treats Andie like shit and ignores her half the time. When she isn't at her mom's place, with Ralph making her the frickin maid of their house, she's at her father's home where he yells at her and beats her sometimes; she can't get a break. Yet she takes it all and holds it inside, which scares me that one day she'll snap and do something she'll regret later on. I know she acts like she doesn't care, but she does. She mainly puts on this show for her half-sister, Becky, who she loves a lot, yet never gives her the time of day; I swear Andie would do anything for that kid—if only Becky knew what her sister did for her sake.

"Kay, time to go Pone," said Andie, snapping me back to reality, making me realize I slightly overcooked my eggs.

She picks up her bags and walks past me on her way out the door, slapping my ass and laughing. She tosses her head back to me and laughs, "See ya later, sexy."

* * *

First story!  
Hope you enjoyed the first chapter, better stuff to come. R/R, please! Thanks.

Oh also just a note: this story is written from Soda's POV - doing a 3rd person narrative so you get an object view of Andie's life.


	2. Chapter 2

I got home earlier than normal. Boss let me off my shift a bit earlier than normal since it wasn't busy today. Worked for me. I am greeted with the sound of Mickey Mouse's voice filling the house as soon as I walked inside.

"Hi Two-Bit!" I yelled loud enough so he could hear me.

He comes into the kitchen, "Sup, Sodapop. Whatcha doin' there?"

"Making more cake. Ran out last night. Andie was disappointed this morning."

"So was I. I had to drink my beer with… beer!" he retorted. Typical.

"What is up with Andie now-a-days? I haven't seen her in years!" joked Two-Bit.

"I know, it sucks cus she's been watching her sister more often. She switches houses today," I told Two-Bit.

"Man, is she coming here first, at least?"

"Yeah, she said she has to pick up some of her … stuff," I said as I moved my hands to encapsulate all of her belongings scattered throughout the living room.

"This is all her shit?!" asked a surprised Two-Bit. "Hell, I thought it belonged to a bunch of us. She's such a girl. How can she live like this? How can Darry live like this? It looks like a pigsty in here!"

"I know. Darry was pretty pissed when he saw all her stuff everywhere. But he knows she's leaving today and she just did this last night. Must have been looking for something. Idunno." I went back to the kitchen to work on the cake.

"Howdy, yall," came Andie's voice. "You guys remember my little sister, Becky right?"

"Becky!" hollered Two-Bit as he swept her into a circling hug. "How could I forget you!"

"Put me down," said Becky rolling her eyes.

"Becky, stop with the sass. They're just being nice to you," Andie said as she started collecting her stuff from the floor.

"But apparently that's too much to ask of you," Andie muttered under her breath.

"Did the kid leave yet?" came a new voice.

"Nah, she's still here – getting her stuff," I said.

Andie paused what she was doing and looked up.

"Dally!" She shouted.

"Kid, not so loud," he growled.

"Not my fault someone had too much to drink last night, stupid. And I'm not a kid, kid," she egged him on.

Normally Dally would've lashed out, but with Andie he just lets her taunts go, knowing that he can just dish it out to her and she'll take it.

"Thought I wasn't gonna see ya before I left for the week," she said, finishing packing.

"Ehh," started Dally. "I had nothing else better to do at Buck's. I wouldn't be here if I did."

"Two-Bit, stop it!" snapped Becky. "You're really irritating me!"

"Becky, please just be nice," sighed Andie.

"Well, hurry up and I will be. You know I hate it here," she blatantly stated. All of us knew that Becky hated being in Greaser territory. She thought it was for the poor, dirty class of society. Yet she never gave much thought to the fact that this was her sister's home and that every time she says something negative about us, she's inflicting pain within her sister.

"I know, hun. I'm done. Come on lets go," Andie said, grabbing her bag.

She turned to all of us before heading out the door, "See you all in a week! I'll miss ya."

The door slammed shut and we went back to what we usually do. Two-Bit watching Mickey on the TV, Dally smoking, and I went back to finishing the cake. When all of a sudden we heard a faint scream, Two-Bit walked into the kitchen and we all just looked at each other for a second before bolting out the door.

"Andie!" we all cried.

"Get off of her Curly! I'm warning you!" Andie yelled, her hand going for her back pocket where she keeps her blade.

It looked as though Curly was trying to get fresh with Becky.

"What's it to you, she's just some soc," said Curly.

"Yeah, well that _soc_ is my sister," pointed out Andie, taking out her blade.

We're about 20 feet away as we see Curly lunging forward to de-arm Andie. Andie quickly moves aside while keeping her sister behind her, pushing her away from Curly. Simultaneously Becky stumbles backwards and falls; she breaks her fall with her arm and instantly grabs her wrist as though it broke. I hear a yipe come from Becky. By now we're five feet away. Dally sprints to Curly and catches hold of him, telling him off. Two-Bit and I go to Andie and Becky.

"You okay?" I asked Andie.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she replied putting away her blade.

"You know you really shouldn't pull a blade on Curly," pointed out Two-Bit.

Andie was already ignoring us, checking up on Becky.

"You okay?" she asks Becky.

Becky just glares at her.

"I hate you," spat Becky. "You and all your greasy friends."

"Come off it Becky, you're no better than us!"

"Just get away from me. Wait until mom and dad hear about this; they're going to be pissed."

I swear at that moment I saw a glint of joy in her eye with the thought of Andie getting in trouble. And then I see the smallest hint of a smirk on her face.

"Is your wrist okay?" Andie asks. I don't know if she chose to ignore the sadistic nature of her sister or if she was truly oblivious of it.

Becky just ignores her as she starts to walk home.

I hear Andie sigh. I go up to her and put my arm around her, walking with her.

"Your sister sure is one of a kind," says Two-Bit trying to lighten the mood. "It's like she's always on her period, or something."

"Or something is right," said Andie.

"You're a good sis, always sticking up for her making sure she's okay," I pointed out. "Even though she makes you feel like crap."  
"Thanks Soda."

We walked the rest of the way. Andie watching Becky, who was walking a ways ahead of us. Two-Bit is now carrying Andies bags; my arm still around her waist. We finally reach her house.

"Welp, here ya go," says Two-Bit throwing Andie's bag at her. It caught her off guard, hitting her in the shoulder.

"Thanks Two-Bit, way to help out," she said, laughing as she picked up her bag.

"Not my fault you have lousy hand-eye coordination," he shrugged. He lit a cig. "See ya soon, kid."

She smiled and nodded a goodbye.

"Alright Soda, see ya next week," she starts to walk away. I grab her and pull her into a bear hug.

"See you soon. House is never the same without you."  
"I know," she winked as she went in the house.

What a flirt. Maybe one day I'll make a move on her, but then our little interactions wouldn't be as fun if we were to ever get serious.


	3. Chapter 3

3rd Person Narrative:

* * *

"What the hell happened to Becky?" Ralph demanded.

"Just had an incident with some boy. Don't worry about, I took care of it," said Andie.

"Don't worry about it? That's all you have to say?" roared Ralph. "Of course I'm gonna worry about it. Her wrist is broken!"

"How do you know if her wrist is broken? You never even took her to the hospital!" yelled Andie.

"Really, girl? You want to have this discussion now!"

"Whatever," she said walking away from him.

"I'm not done with you!" hollered Ralph. "Get back here now."

Andie kept walking toward her bedroom. Ralph quickly stormed to get her and grabbed her wrist leading her to the kitchen.

"You listen to me when I'm talking to you! You hear me?" demanded Ralph.

Andie noticed the gas stove was on, the fire from the burner was on high—as though someone was preparing to boil water over it. She nodded her head yes, answering Ralph.

"At least I get some sort of acknowledgement from you."

She just stared at him not saying anything.

"You never should have taken Becky to your side. Because of you, look what happened to her," he sneered.

"It's not my fault that someone tried to jump her. Listen, I was there and I prevented it, okay. I don't know why you're getting mad at me. She only got hurt cus I pushed her out of the way!"

"Oh so it was your fault then!" he yelled. "I am so sick of you!"

He grabbed her wrist, pulling he entire body towards him. He held tightly and stretched out her left arm so that her wrist was above the stove burner. She whimpered, trying to get away; she could feel the flames on her skin.

"Let me go!" she demanded.

"Let this be a lesson. Do not. I repeat. Do not ever take my daughter there again! You hear me!"

"I can't help it if that's where i live!" she shouted back, still in his hold, trying to get away.

"Shut up, bitch."

He released her. Andie quickly pulled her wrist from the stove burner and clutched it. It was burned, the skin was raw and waxy looking. She wanted to cry, but refused to let Ralph see her in pain.

"Well, get out of my sight," he ordered.

She obliged going to her room. There she got a clean shirt, cut it, and wrapped it around her wrist. Andie knew that that wasn't the proper way to take care of a burn of that degree, but at that moment she didn't care. She'd take care of it later. Right now all she wanted to do was go to sleep.

* * *

Chapter 3 already guys! So, is this story any good? Should I keep going? Let me know, especially since finals are almost in full force, need to see if this is even worth it!


	4. Chapter 4

A week went by. The weeks that Andie wasn't here always tended to go by slower than normal. For the rest of the gang it was more tolerable since Andie still went to school with them. For me, however, I don't get to see her at all. In this case, it sucks having dropped out of high school.

"Soda, Soda, Sodapop!" came a sing-songy voice.

"Andie!" I called out.

She smiled her contagious smile and threw herself into my arms, giving me a light kiss on the cheek.

"Whatcha been up to since I've been away, huh?" she asked.

"Mmm, nothing much. Just work. Boring stuff, really," I replied.

She looked up at me, smiling. Then I noticed her tugging on the hem of her left jacket sleeve, as though she was consciously trying to hide something.

"What're you doing?" I asked her.

"Huh?" she replied, furrowing her brow.

"Your sleeve. Why do you keep tugging on it? You never mindlessly play with your clothes."

"Oh, it's nothing," she shrugged off.

"Okay," I said. I was letting this go for now.

"You get any cake?" she asked.

The next day, in the empty lot, I overheard Dally yelling at Andie. I came late to the conversation so I didn't hear what he was yelling at her about.

"Dally! Just leave me alone!" Andie yelled.

"You tell me now!" he roared.

"Go to hell, Dallas!" she screamed.

"Whoa there guys. What's going on?" I asked trying to calm them down.

"Yeah we don't want World War III to break out," cracked Two-Bit. I had forgotten he was with me.

"Andie what's wrong?" knowing I'd probably get a better answer out of her.

"That's exactly it. Nothing's wrong," she stated, point blank.

"Sure it's not," Dally scoffed. "Why don't you ask her to show you what happened to her wrist."

"Her wrist?" I questioned. "Which one? Her left one?"

Two-Bit just cocked his eyebrow. He observed what was going on and waited to see how it emerged. In the mean time, Dally nodded at me. Andie looked pissed, her lips scrunched to the right side of her mouth.

"Okay, now you have to show me," I told her.

"Sodapop, I don't have to show you anything," she said bitterly.

Dally snuck up behind her and tightly grabbed her so she couldn't get away.

"Hurry up, Soda. She's stronger than she used be," he was referring to when she was 11 and he'd do this to her to make her tell us what was wrong.

I hurried up to Andie and grabbed her left arm, slowly drawing up the left hem of her jacket. I notice her face wince, so I moved more gently. As I drew it up I saw white gauze emerge.

"What happened?" I gasped.

"Take it off," ordered Dally.

"Bet it's every girls' dream to have Dallas Winston direct a comment like that to her," she snarked.

That got a chuckle out of Two-Bit.

"Yeah, well maybe in some other circumstance you and I can discuss some of those _opportunities_," he retorted back to her.

Curiosity had now gotten the better of me and I gingerly undid the wrappings. It revealed a weeping burn.

"What in the world?" I said.

"Whoa, girly. Did you forget how to use a stove?" asked Two-Bit.

"See. Told you it was something," stated Dally. He let her go.

"Well, speak," he said.

"It's nothing guys. I just burnt myself—" Andie started to say.

"Bull shit," Dally caught her lie. "Start again."

She studied us for a moment, almost as if she was contemplating if she should lie to use again.

She sighed and began, "Ralph was pissed over what happened to Becky. He held my wrist over an open flame. No biggie."

"That bastard," I said.

Two-Bit just shook his head, lighting a cigarette.

"Don't worry about it guys. It'll make a tough scar," Andie brushed this incident off.

She started to re-wrap her burn, with some difficulty. I went to go help her; surprisingly she let me help. I wish she wouldn't keep brushing off all of these incidents. One of these days she's going to crack and shit will hit the fan. By this time we had all sat down in the lot. I was playing with some of the dead grass next to me.

"Hey Two-Bit," she called. "Pass me one of those."

Two-Bit passed her a cigarette and the lighter. She put the cig in her mouth, flicked open the lighter and took a deep inhale. She passed the lighter back to Two-Bit and exhaled all the smoke. A smile took form on her face.

"Now, this is the good life," she joked as she crawled over to sit next to me.

She leaned against my chest, almost done smoking her cigarette. Andie goes through those cancer sticks too fast. She blew some smoke in my face, smiled, and winked. She took another long drag, finishing the cigarette; she flicked it by her foot and put it out. Then she did something totally unexpected, she sat up, brought her face level to mine and then kissed me. It was a soft kiss, innocent enough. Two-Bit started cat-calling when he realized what was happening. Afterwards she stood up, walked to Two-Bit, punched him in the arm and then started walking back to my house, as though nothing happened. Andie is one girl I will never understand.


	5. Chapter 5

We got back to the house after Dally and Two-Bit were done smoking. Andie was there sitting on the couch zoning out while watching TV. Johnny and Ponyboy were seemingly trying to do their homework.

Steve came barreling through the front door.

"You guys going to the party at Buck's tonight?" he asked.

"What party?" I asked him.

Normally if there was a party everyone knew about it a couple days ahead of time.

"It was a last minute thing because Curly is going back to the cooler, so they're throwing him his last night of freedom party," said Steve.

I shook my head. Those Shepard boys were always in trouble with the law; it's no wonder Dally and Tim are such good buddies, they're basically cut from the same cloth.

"Who's in?" asked Steve getting a head count.

"Cheap booze and hot chicks? I was in when you said party!" said Two-Bit enthusiastically. It wouldn't be Two-Bit if he didn't take you up on a party offer.

Dally slightly nodded his head.

"I guess I'll go. Not like I have much else going on," said Johnny, pausing from his homework to look at Steve.

"Dude, you had me at party. It's been a while," smirked Andie. That girl knew how to party; she could get pretty wild if the opportunity presented itself. Since this was one of Curly's going away parties, it was going to be epic, most usually are.

"I told Darry about it. He said he was going to go," said Steve.

I looked at him, flabbergasted. Darry, going to a party? That never happens. I was glad though, Darry needs to let loose and be a 20-year old every now and then.

"Soda you going?" inquired Two-Bit.

I thought for a moment, "Nah, I'll stay home with Pony."

Pony looked up, "Why don't I get to go?"  
"Because, knowing it's at Bucks and knowing it's for Curly, it's too rambunctious for you. Besides, Darry'll skin ya alive if he sees you there!" I told him.

Pony sighed. He knew I was right and let it go.

"Man, Soda, you're going to be missing out! I heard it's going to be one for the books. Buck started renting out his rooms! You know what that means!" exclaimed Steve. This was the most excited I've ever seen Steve. Normally the most excitement you see on him is right before a rumble.

"Yeah, thanks for rubbing it in," I said to Steve, slapping him on the back of his head.

He slapped me back, I pushed him, he roughs me up. Next thing I know we're arm wrestling.

"What time are we leaving?" asked Andie.

"Quarter to 9," gruffed Dally. "Don't be late. Meet here."

"Andie, you ready to get rip-roaring drunk!" shouted Two-Bit.

"Hell yeah!" Andie matched Two-Bits decibel. "We should pre-game."

At that, Two-Bit grinned and said, "I'll bring the beer."

Two-Bit came back to our house around 8:15, beers in tow. Andie never left the house, she did homework with Johnny and Pony for a while and then took a nap. She's been in the bathroom for about half and hour getting ready. Johnny was still here lounging on the couch, watching TV.

"Andie! Where you at? I got the beer! Hurry, we're wasting valuable drinking time!" hollered Two-Bit.

"I'm coming. I'm coming," said Andie.

She emerged from the bathroom. She was wearing cut off shorts that she had made from a pair of Pony's old jeans from middle school and one of my t-shirts, she had knotted the bottom of it in the back so it wouldn't be so baggy. For once Andie was wearing make up, just eyeliner, heavy eyeliner and lipstick. I remember her telling me once that she only wore lipstick when she planned on doing something crazy and unpredictable; it was her warning to the world.

"Woah," whispered Johnny.

"Holy shit! Where'd you find that girl, Andie?" joked Two-Bit. His eyebrow cocked, slight smirk on his face. "Daumn!"

"Are you going to keep staring or are we going to drink?" sassed Andie.

"Oh you are a girl after my own heart. Catch," he said tossing a beer to Andie.

"Soda, you want one?" he asked me. I nodded yes, mind as well drink with them for a little bit since I wasn't going to the party. "Johnny?"

Johnny nodded; that surprised me, he normally doesn't drink.

"Ready?" Two-Bit asked Andie.

She smiled.

"On three?" she questioned. Two-Bit nodded. I knew what they were going to do.

"One," said Two-Bit.

"Two," counted Andie.

"Three!" I yelled.

On three, Andie and Two-Bit popped their cans and raced to see who could finish theirs the fastest. Two-Bit won, but only by minuscule of a second. He yelped with joy.

"Boy, don't get too happy. That was luck and you know it!" pointed out Andie.

"Rematch?" he asked.

"You're on. Only this time," she grabbed a can and shook it before tossing it to Two-Bit. He did the same. They both pulled out their blades, getting ready.

"Johnny count us off," said Two-Bit.

"Ready, set, go," said Johnny.

At that, they took their blades and punctured it in the side of the can and shotgun the beer. This time Andie won. She slammed her can down on the table, crossed her arms and waited for Two-Bit to finish.

"Winner, Andie!" I announced, going over to her and pulling up her left arm, like they do to boxing champions.

"You guys getting drunk already?" said Steve. It was now 8:30, Dally should be here soon. "Where's Superman?"

"Well aren't you full of questions tonight," said Andie. "Chill out, drink a beer."

She tossed Steve a can; he popped it open.

"Soda you sure you don't want to come? The kid's old enough to watch himself," said Steve.

Pony just glared at Steve.

"I'm not a kid; I'm fourteen," I heard him mumble.

"Everyone better be ready. We're leaving now," came Dally's voice before he even entered the room.

Once he got there he looked around and then turned around ready to leave. Everyone followed suit.

"Where is Darry?" asked Andie. Darry was no where to be found.

"Darry's already at Bucks. He went over as soon as he was done with work," said Dally.

Realization dawned on me, that's what Darry was saying as he left for work. I'd been too pre-occupied with other things to really hear what he was saying.

With that the gang left the house and went off into the night to party at Bucks.


	6. Chapter 6

I vaguely thought I heard the front door open waking me up, but was too tired to really care. I was just about to fall back asleep when I heard my bedroom door open. I habitually moved over to the side of my bed, expecting Pony to crawl into bed with me, as he normally does when he has a bad dream. Sure enough he climbs into bed and snuggles close to me, but then I realize in my dream-like state that it wasn't Pony. I open my eyes slightly and realize it was Andie who was currently in bed with me, cuddling.

"Hey handsome," she slurred. "Nice to see you awake."

"Andie, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at home?" I asked her sleepily.

"Why be at home when I could be here with you? Besides you make for much better company," she giggled.

She leaned in closer to me, resting her head on my chest.

"Mmm, I love the way you smell," she said after inhaling.

She lifted her head so that her lips brushed my neck. She gingerly kissed my neck. Next thing I know she's pulled herself up so her lips were next to mine and she began kissing me. Softly at first, then rougher. I felt her tongue asking permission into my mouth, I accept its invitation. As soon as her tongue begins to explore I can taste the remnants of the alcohol she had that night. While we're making out, I feel her hands pull my shirt up, I humor her and take it off; her shirt was still on, but I didn't realize it until then that she had taken off her shorts. My hands instinctually go slide up her shirt and I realize she wasn't wearing a bra; she must have felt me hesitate because she stopped kissing me. I could feel a smirk on her face.

"It's okay," she said with her lips still on top of mine.

She took her lips off of my lips and moved to my neck and began sucking. A moan slipped away from me. I could feel a brief smile from Andie. She began to suck a little harder and another moan came from me.

The next thing I know I feel her right hand start to slide down my abdomen and go down into my boxers. I grab her hand.

"Andie," I said.

"What?" she asked softly. "You don't like it?"

"Andie, you're drunk," I told her quietly, gently.

"That makes a difference?" she asked.

"Well, I don't want you to do something you'll regret later."

"Sody, I know exactly what I'm doing. It's not like you're the first boy I ever wanked," she laughed. She only calls me "Sody" she's drunk off her ass.

"I know, Andie," I took a second too long to respond because before I she's trying to pull off my boxers.

"Andie!" I said sternly sitting up, forcing her to sit up as well. "Stop."

"Soda!" she mimicked. "Just let me. I'm like totally fine, okay."

"No," I said. "You need to stop. You're really drunk. You reek of alcohol, I can smell it oozing from you. If you still want to do this tomorrow night, then we will, but not tonight."

She wouldn't take no for an answer because now she's straddling me, giving me a lap dance. She starts to take off her shirt.

"Andie!" I quietly yelled, not wanting to wake up Ponyboy and Darry—for both our sakes.

She stops and frowns. Her hands go from my boxers again. I'm not going to lie and say that I was not aroused by her lovely dance. Andie realized this. She starts to take off my boxers and before I know it I slap her across her face. She stops and stares at me, shocked.

"Andie, I'm sorry," I quickly said.

She moves towards the door.

"Andie, wait," I follow her.

"Get away from me," she hissed. "Get. Away. From. Me."

"I'm sorry Andie," none of us had ever hit her before, not even Dally. I never thought I'd break that record.

"I just didn't want you to do something you'd regret tomorrow or be embarrassed about."

"It doesn't matter anymore," she said going back to my room. She pulled on her shorts and slyly put her bra back on under her shirt, I always wondered how she could do that. She grabbed one of my jackets, left my room and headed out the door.

"Where are you going? It's 4:30 in the morning," I informed her.

"What do you care? You got what you wanted, I'm leaving you alone," she snapped.

I started to follow her.

"Do not follow me," Andie growled.

We all know better than to confront her when she is this emotional. I let her go, even though I know something may happen to her. I watch her disappear into the night, praying she'll be safe. I go back to my room and climb into bed. Needless to say, I couldn't sleep the rest of the night.

* * *

**If you're reading please review! Thanks!**


	7. Chapter 7

"Hey Little Buddy," said Darry cheerily the next morning. "How was your night? You look like you didn't sleep a wink."

"I didn't. I got a visitor in the middle of the night," I told him.

"Ponyboy?" he asked.

"Yeah?" answered Pony from the bathroom.

"Did you sleep with Soda last night?" Darry asked him.

"No, I was in my room," he said.

"It wasn't Pony. It was Andie. Andie, paid me a late night visit. Don't worry nothing happened. Well, I mean something did, but not what you're thinking," I quickly told Darry once I saw his mouth start to open to say something about it.

"We had a fight and she stormed off. I couldn't sleep after that. She was really drunk and I dunno where she went," I yawned.

"It's Andie, I'm sure she's fine. She's tough enough," comforted Darry.

I suppose he's right, but she's still a girl and often times the gang forgets that. Last night she would've made for an easy target for the Socs because she was so drunk. I stop my mind from wandering what may have happened.

"Hey Pony, lemme know if you see Andie at school today," I told him.

"Mmm," he mumbled while brushing his teeth.

"Thanks. See you guys later!" I hollered as I headed off to the DX.

* * *

"Andie was at school today," said Johnny as he and Ponyboy came home from school. "But she didn't look to hot. Looked like something happened to her. She looked beat."

I groaned. If something had happened to her last night, I wouldn't be able to live with myself.

"She just looked tired," said Pony. "I'm sure she'll be fine once she gets some sleep tonight."

"I suppose."

"I don't know why you worry so much about her," commented Steve. "She's practically a dude. Although last night, I loved me some Andie. Man she was so drunk, frickin giving a lap dance to everyone." Steve had a twinkle in his eye when he said that.

"Drunk Andie, is a fun Andie," Two-Bit agreed.

"Can you even remember last night?" Steve asked rather jaunty.

"Drunk Two-Bit, is a .. well.. drunk Two-Bit, but that doesn't mean I don't not remember anything."

"Do you remember taking your pants off and dancing on the table?"

"As of matter of fact I do. But obviously you don't remember singing "Jailhouse Rock" and almost getting thrashed by Tim. Now that was hilarious!" laughed Two-Bit, shutting up Steve.

While those two were nagging each other, I kept thinking about Andie.

"I'm going over to Andie's," I decided.

Steve and Two-Bit stopped arguing.

"But she's on the other side of town," pointed out Ponyboy.

"I know, I just want to check up on her," I said.

"Why?" asked Steve. "You never check up on her other times she's been drunk. What happened last night?"

"Nothing," I shrugged off. "I just have a bad feeling about this."

"Whatever man. See you when you get back," said Steve.

I left the house and started walking over to Andie's. It's a good ways away walking, but it gives me time to think, which I like. Lucky for me Andie's mom and step-dad live closer to the outskirts of soc terriotry. Before I know it I'm outside their house. Nervously I knock on the door, not knowing what to expect; this is the first time I've been here without Andie.

The door opens, Andie answered.

She glared at me. "What?" she spat out, leaving the door open as she walked back into the house. I took that to mean I was invited inside. I walk in.

"Well. What are you doing here?" she demands.

"I wanted to make sure you're okay," I say. She's still glaring at me with her arms crossed and hip cocked to the side.

"I'm alive. I'm breathing. I'm fine. You can leave now," she said. Andie pursed her lips.

"What happened to you?" I asked. Her lip was cut, dried with blood and her neck had bruises on it. If that's what just her face and neck looked like, I could only imagine what else happened to her.

"What's it to you? I'm fine. You need to leave now," she said.

"Andie, look I'm sorry about last night. But you were drun—" she rushed over to me and slapped her hand over my mouth before I could finish.

"Shut up," she whispered. I was confused.

"Ugh, Andie who is in there?" came Becky's voice. She came wondering into the room and when she realized it was me, she put two and two together.

"Ohmahgawd! You were drunk last night! That's why you came stumbling at God knows what hour. Wait till Mom and Dad find out; they're going to have a field day," she squealed.

Andie looked at me and said, "Thanks. That's why I didn't want to talk about it."

"Becky who's there?" came a voice. A woman appeared it must have been Andie's mom.

"Just a friend of Andie's who informed me that Andie was drunk last night. I saw her, she was stumbling and everything. I mean look at her face—she must have gotten into a fight or something too!" said Becky.

"Andie!" scolded Andie's mom.

"You've always disappointed me. Doesn't surprise me at all. I don't know why I keep you around. Should've just given _your _father custody from the beginning. One of these days you're going to end up dead somewhere," she said. Then she walked out of the room. She was mumbling but I was able to catch her say, "We'd be better off if you were dead."

I just looked at Andie. I'm pretty sure she heard her too as I saw a flicker of emotion in her eyes.

"You need to go now Soda. Really. Please go. I'm not mad at you. I'm sorry, but please, you gotta go now," she told me apathetically.

I stared at her long and hard.

"If you need to get away you come by the house, dig?" I told her.

She nodded and walked me to the door.

"See ya later."

* * *

"You're a disgrace to this family!" shouted Ralph. "A terrible influence on Becky! You should be ashamed of yourself!"

Andie just stood there, letting Ralph yell at her.

"Look at me when I'm talking to you!"

"You're not talking to me. You're yelling," she muttered.

"What did you say to me?" He screamed.

"Nothing," she said. She looked at him and scowled.

He had enough of this freeloader living with them. He walked behind her and kicked her in the back of her right knee, causing her knee to buckle and have her hit the floor. As soon as she was down he kicked her in the side of the ribs.

"You piece of worthless shit!" he yelled at her. He grabbed the back of her head by her hair and pulled her head up with such force that she could have sworn he pulled out some of her hair. When her face high enough to see him, he clocked her on the right side of her face, then threw her back down. She hit her forhead against the hardwood floors. He kicked her again. Then he picked her up and pushed her against the wall, with so much power that she felt the wall vibrate. As a result, her head slammed into the wall.

"Fucking cunt!" he bellowed. He lifted her off the wall only to slam her into it again.

By this time she was starting to lose a clear visual on her surroundings and things were starting to get fuzzy, but she was still conscious.

"Get out of my house. You hear me?" he roared. He threw her to the ground, went to her room, grabbed her bag, that she never unpacked, opened the front door and threw it out onto the lawn. Then he went back to get her and pushed her out as well, slamming the door behind her and locking it.

Andie clumsily went to pick up her bag and made the long trek to the Curtis'. It took her over an hour as it was hard for her to judge the distance and remember which way to turn, but she made it there, barely. She opened the door and could barely make out the figures there.

"Andie!" cried Two-Bit upon realizing it was her.

"Fuck," said Dally once he looked at her.

Darry rushed over to her as she started to fall, he barely caught her. I rushed over to her.

"Andie, Andie, can you hear me?" I asked her.

Her eyes were open, but wasn't focusing on anything and moving from side to side as if she were trying to look for something.

"It's me, Sodapop," I told her. Her stopped, but still were not focused.

"Golly," I heard Johnny say. "It looks like her old man's been beating her."

"Guys move out of the way so I can get her to the couch," said Darry. He laid her gently on the couch.

"Should we take her to the hospital?" asked Pony.

"I dunno," said Darry. "Lets just see how she does in an hour."

By then she was asleep. We'd later find out she had a concussion and that we shouldn't had let her sleep, or we should've been waking her up every hour or so, as we could've lost her. When the gang left our house, I picked up her and moved her to my bed so that there'd be less of a chance she'd roll off of it. I took off her shoes and socks and debated if I should take off her jeans, knowing she hates sleeping in them, but decided to leave them on since when she'd wake up she probably wouldn't remember anything. That night I slept on the couch.


	8. Chapter 8

"Glory, she's still asleep?" I asked when I came home from work the next day. She was asleep when I left and looked as though she hadn't moved from last night.

"Yup," said Two-Bit. He was watching Mickey while smoking. Pony had beat me home and was doing homework.

"Did she wake up at all?" I continued to ask – getting worried.

"Not really, she stirred a little, but never really fully conscious," said Two-Bit.

"Wait, did you stay here all day? Did you cut school, again?" I finally put two and two together.

"Like I learn anything in school. The world is my school," joked Two-Bit, although I knew he was being serious. "Besides, I figured someone ought to look out for the kid today. I wonder what she did to get herself like this…"

"Her mom and Ralph found out that she was wasted. Becky ratted on her," I told him. I explained to him what had happened when I went over to her house and we can imagine what happened to her, well I guess we didn't really have to imagine, as the result of it was on my couch.

"Andie's old man sure beat her good," remarked Dally. He had this way of sneaking, when he felt like it.

I nodded, agreeing with him.

"Should we wake her up?" I asked.

"Kid must be starving," answered Two-Bit.

"Just because you eat every hour doesn't mean everyone does," Pony pointed out, looking up from his homework.

Dally got up and went into my room, I followed him.

"Andie," said Dally as he shook her.

She mumbled something inaudible.

"Andie," he said again. This time he shook her harder, making the couch shake.

"Dally! Stop shaking her; that can't be good for her," I told him. Clearly something was wrong with her. No one can be that sound asleep for this long. "Maybe we oughta take her to the hospital."

Two-Bit and Pony joined us in my room.

I heard her groan and then mumble, "No hospital." It was barely a whisper.

"Andie," whispered Pony. "Are you awake?"

"Mmmm," was all that she replied.

"Are you hungry?" asked Two-Bit.

We all turned our heads and stared at him.

"What?" he said. "It's a valid question."

She shook her head no. Her eyes were still closed.

"Maybe you should sit up?" I suggested. "You probably should eat a little something."

"I'm fine," she mumbled. "I just wanna sleep. I'm okay."

She rolled over and went back to sleep.

I heard the door slam shut; Darry's back from work. He peered into the room, "She okay?"

"Still sleeping," said Dally point blank.

"Been like that all day," chimed Two-Bit.

"Should we take her to the hospital?" I asked him.

"Did she wake up at all?" asked Darry.

"Yeah, she just talked to us," I told him.

"I think she'll be fine, she probably has a concussion. We should keep forcing her to wake up every hour or so, just to make sure," he said.

Dally stared at me with a smug look on his face, as though he were telling me that he was right to violently shake her awake. I just ignored him, not wanting to deal with that.

"Well, I guess I'll sleep on the couch again," I said. Clearly I was not going to be getting my bed back tonight.

The next morning I went to check on Andie and my bed was empty. I wandered around the house looking for hear, only to hear that the shower was running. I knocked on the door.

"Yeah?" it was her voice. I sighed with relief.

"You okay?" I asked her.

"Yeah," she replied.

"Almost done in there? I gotta get ready for work," I hollered through the door.

I heard the shower shut off and the door unlock. She opened the door, she had a towel wrapped around her.

"All yours," she said.

"You feeling better?" I asked her.

She shrugged, "Enough."

By the time I was done in the bathroom she was all dressed.

"Where are you going?" I asked her.

"School," she said as though it were obvious.

"I don't know if you should be going," said Darry, he was already at the dining table eating. "You're just walking around after having a concussion."

"I'm fine. I feel good enough," she said. "Besides, Darry, I'm not one of your little brothers you can boss around."

"Who you calling little!" I said, picking up on that.

"You, little boy," she taunted. She grabbed her stuff and left, disregarding Darry's advice and going to school.

"And I thought you boys were a handful. I'm glad mom and dad didn't have any girls," Darry pointed out.

I laughed. I'm glad I only had brothers. Even though I love Andie like a sister, I'm glad she's not my sister. I'd be worried sick about her all the time, watching out for her.

* * *

Sorry guys, filler chapter.  
Hoping to have more action stuff next chapter.

Reviews are always welcomed.


	9. Chapter 9

Maybe she should've listened to Darry. Her mind still felt fuzzy and she was having a hard time concentrating on anything that was being said. She decided to cut PE as she really didn't have the energy to be running around. Andie walked to the parking lot to see if any of the guys were there. She spotted Steve smoking by his car and went to join him.

"Lend a girl a cigarette?" she asked him.

He took out his Kools. She made a face.

"Don't take them if you don't like them," he said coolly.

"Why do you buy these?" she groaned. Kools were not particularly her favorite. If it were up to her she'd be smoking Virginia Slims all the time, but she knew if she did the gang wouldn't let her live it down. It wasn't her fault those had a nice minty aftertaste. Usually she smoked Blacks because she liked the vanilla-cinnamon taste, which the boys didn't care for. That suited her just fine as they wouldn't ask her for a smoke as often. Blacks just took a little time to get used to, especially if you happened to get a box of them with no filter.

"Because I'm a guy and I don't smoke Virginias," he retorted.

She mockingly glared at him.

"What're you doing out here? Don't you have class?" he finally realized.

"Don't you?" she shot back.

Steve shrugged, "Canceled."

"Whatever," she rolled her eyes, not buying his excuse.

"Well why aren't you there? If anyone gets a chance to get out of this shit hole it's you and Pony. And don't pretend that you don't care about school either, because if you didn't you wouldn't have come today," he pointed out.

He was right. She actually enjoyed school, although she'd rather have a rumble with Dally before admitting that. Her grades were actually really good she had a high chance of being able to get into a good college, if she could afford it.

"I have PE, I'm just too tired to go," she told him.

He looked at her carefully and then let it go.

"You know, you probably shouldn't be smoking then," he told her.

"Oh shut up," exhaling the smoke in his face.

"God, you can be so irritating," said Steve afterwards.

Bell rang, time for her next class. She flicked her cigarette butt on the ground and put it out.

"Well, it's been real Steve. See ya after school," she smiled bye and left to go to history, her favorite class, although she'd deny it if anyone ever found out.

History focused on the results of World War II and the decline of Germany economy due to the reparations of $20 billion they owed to both the Soviet Union and the Western allies. Two-Bit was supposed to be in that class with Andie, but as usual he was nowhere to be found. She knew she'd be sharing her notes with him the night before finals.

This was Andie's last class of the day and once the bell rang, it was a mad rush for the door. She waited a bit before exiting the classroom. She hated all of the commotion and chaos that went on from the second floor to the main exit of the building. As Andie made her way down the stairs she spotted Becky and decided to follow her, just to make sure she got back to her neighborhood safely. She trailed behind Becky a good distance, knowing that if Becky caught her she'd be pissed that her sister was being "over protective." But it was a good thing that Andie was following Becky because Becky didn't realize it, but she suddenly had blue Mustang following her. Andie quickened her pace to enclose the gap between her and her sister. Socs normally didn't jump their own.

"Hey Becky," said one of them. It wasn't a good sign that they knew her name.

Becky spun around, clearly oblivious she was being followed.

"Uh, hi. Can I help you?" she asked.

Andie was still far enough away to not be seen by either of them, but close enough to hear their conversation.

"Yeah you can as a matter of fact," said the Soc as they got out of the Mustang; he was wearing khakis and loafers. Andie rolled her eyes at that.

"Well," Becky demanded. That girl was going to get it; she did not know what was happening.

Part of Andie was enjoying the fact that her sister might get a beating, so she'd know what Andie had go to through her entire life in Oklahoma, but Andie knew what would happen if Becky did get in a fight and the outcomes would not be good.

"We're looking for someone. You may know her. I believe her name is, Andie?" asked khaki boy.

"Yeah, that's my _half_-sister. What, she owe you money or something?" Becky emphasized half.

"Or something," said one of them.

They began to encircle Becky. There were six of them.

"We want to teach her a lesson in, how should we word this, etiquette?" sniggered another one.

"What'd she do now?" sighed Becky, that girl had gall.

"Oh, lets just say she owes me some money," khaki boy said.

Then it clicked with Andie. These were the guys that she had pick pocketed from about a month ago. Not like he had much in his wallet; she somewhat got caught by them. Somewhat meaning, she got away, but they recognized her.

"We're going to send her a message," he said.

"Okay, what can I tell her?" asked a naïve Becky.

"Oh, you won't have to tell her anything, expect maybe who did this to you," he sneered.

"Hey!" Andie shouted, making her presence known. "Leave her out of this."

The grouped turned around to look at Andie.

"Just the person I was looking for," khaki boy mockingly exclaimed.

"Me? I'm flattered," she said sarcastically "Look, leave her alone and I'll give you your money back."

"I don't want the money. Oh no. You see what you did was humiliating. I can understand being picked and out run by a guy, but to be out run and outsmarted by an arrogant girl, specifically a Greaser girl, that's an entirely different story," he said. "Get in the car."

"I'm not getting in no car with you guys. You think I have "idiot" written on my forehead?" she said.

"Oh you'll be getting in the car," he said as he nodded to one of his friends. At this his friend pulled out his blade and grabbed Becky. Becky screamed and was struggling to get free from his hold.

"Okay, okay, put the blade away," Andie tried to take control of the situation. "I'll get in the car, as long as you don't hurt her. Look, I'm getting in the car now."

She opened the door and climbed inside. Once she was in she looked out the window and saw that the Soc loosened his grip on Becky. Two of the Socs climbed in after her, taking a seat on either side of her. Then khaki boy got in the driver's seat along with his other friend. They started driving away. She turned around and saw that the Soc let go of Becky and started walking the other way. Becky was in tears and picking up her stuff. Andie knew she'd be in trouble with Ralph and her mom, but at that moment that wasn't not her foremost problem. She had other things on her mind, like where the Mustang was going and what was going to happen. And to make it worse, she was still extremely tired from the concussion and knew if she had to fight, she wouldn't win unless she was given a very generous handicap, which she knew would not occur.


	10. Chapter 10

**warning: graphic material, mature content. please be advised.**

* * *

Life was pretty dull at the DX today. Some girls stopped by claiming that their car wasn't working correctly, so I checked it out for them. Ended up that they were driving around with their parking break on; of course, their car wasn't working correctly. I really hope that that was a ploy just to stop by the DX and not them seriously not knowing why their car wasn't driving smoothly. Girls: can't live with them cant live without them.

"Hey Steve," I said as he walked through the door. I was at the kitchen table eating some cake.

He nodded hello, "Andie here?"

"Nah, why is she supposed to be?" I asked him.

"Yeah, she told me she was gonna stop by. She must've just got straight to her mom's," he said.

That was unusual for her to not stop by before going to the Westside, but it has happened before so I didn't think anything of it.

"You going to the drive in tonight with Evie?" I asked him.

"Yeah, I hope she's in a good mood. I swear she's on her rags or something. She's been pissed at me recently," he told me.

"You sure it's not just you?" I joked around, grinning at him. He scowled at me.

"Shut up," he told me.

The Mustang stopped. They had been driving for a while and were on the outskirts of town, almost in the next town over. The Socs got out of the car, Andie followed suit. She realized they were parked in front of an abandon warehouse, she knew this was not a good sign and inwardly groaned.

"Get moving," said Khaki Boy, as he pushed her to the entrance.

The door creaked open. Inside it was dark and musty smelling, the floor was slightly dam, small pools of light shown through the holes on the roof. Andie was trying to get her bearings, but nothing seemed familiar to her. They led her to a room and flicked on a light switch. It was empty, aside from a pillar in the middle of the room. They all stopped and encircled her.

"Well," said Khaki Boy. "I suppose I should introduce myself. My name is Jimmy."

"Pleasure to fuckin' meet you Jimmy," Andie said sarcastically. "I'd introduce myself, but obviously you already know me."

"Mouthy one," Jimmy said to his friends. "It's going to be fun shutting her up."

"What do you want?" demanded Andie.

"You know, I'd show a little more respect if I were you," Jimmy pointed out.

"Never really been one to show respect," she replied. Instinctively her hand went to her back pocket for her blade, but Jimmy caught on to what she was doing. He grabbed her, before she had the chance to bring out her switchblade, and held her hands behind her back.

"Tony, search her. Hurry up. She has a blade on her," ordered Jimmy. "Check her back pocket."

One of the Socs came up to her and eyed her up and down before running his hands over her body. His hands on her body made her want to shudder. He ran them down her sides, between her legs, and over her breasts, taking a little more time there, before taking her blade from her back pocket. He smirked as he took it away. As Jimmy let her go, Tony flipped open her blade and tossed it to Jimmy.

"Now, about that respect thing," said Jimmy.

Andie didn't say anything.

"Don't feel as tough now that your defenseless huh?" he taunted.

Her eyes narrowed, but fact of the matter was, she knew the score. Six boys against one girl, one of them had her blade, she didn't know if any others had a blade on them, and to top it off she still had her concussion. Andie knew she wasn't in her fighting prime and thought it best to just keep her trap shut for the time being.

"Damn greasers, always thinking they're so tough. We'll see how tough you are," said Tony.

Jimmy chuckled as he stepped in front of Andie.

"It's too bad you're a greaser, you have the potential to be beautiful," he said stroking her check.

Her eyes widened, then narrowed before spitting on him.

"Fuck you," she said disgusted.

Upon this Jimmy clenched his fist and landed it in the middle of her stomach, knocking the wind out of her. She stumbled backwards, clutching her stomach. He swiped her feet from under her, causing her back to make contact with the ground. Jimmy was hovering over her. He knelt next to her.

"We'll see how tough you really are," he sneered as he got her blade and ran it down the left side of her chest, tearing through her shirt and cutting into her skin; she could tell that was going to leave a scar. Andie gasped out in surprised and tried to suppress the pain, by clenching her teeth together not wanting to give them the satisfaction of seeing her in pain. The blade ran from under her bra line to the top of her jeans. Her shirt was starting stain a crimson red.

"I love it when they squirm," said Tony as him and the other Socs just watched, amused.

"You sick, sadistic bastards," Andie gritted through her teeth. She clenched her fist and swung at Jimmy as hard and as fast as she could, but he saw it coming and moved out of the way.

"You still don't see who has the upper hand don't you?" he said pleased. "I guess we'll just have to continue. It's about time we show these greasers what'll happen when you pretend to be us. When you impose upon our lives."

"What are you talking about?" asked Andie confused. "I thought this was about the money I stole."

"Oh, it was. But this can be so much more. This can be used as a teaching lesson to all those filthy greasers. You see, _you _can't just live on our side whenever you feel like it, when you want a break from _your _world," his voice was laced with bitterness.

"That's where my parents live," said Andie, quietly.

"That's where your step-father lives," corrected Jimmy. "You should stay on your own side. People like you ruin our neighborhoods and destroy our reputations. You shouldn't even be allowed to go to the same school as us!"

Jimmy was now standing and then kicked her hard where he had cut her with the blade.

Andie gasped out in pain, more blood rushing out. Her hand instinctively went to her side, applying pressure.

"But I suppose, there is one thing you can provide," he smirked, eyeing her. He just slightly gestured with his head to his friends. They knew what he meant and went over to Andie. Two of them took her arms, while the others remained on the sidelines. She struggled to get away, but that's all it was a struggle.

Jimmy walked over to her and grabbed the torn part of her shirt and ripped it a part. He tossed the shirt on the ground, leaving Andie in just her bra and jeans.

"Like I said before, such a pity you're a grease," he commented, staying at her breast. "But, I suppose I won't hold that against you for the time being. After all, with some urges, it doesn't matter who you are."

Andie had never been more terrified in her life. A beating she could handle and deal with, but this, this was a whole different level of antagonizing that she was unequipped for. Jimmy's hand had traced the curvature of the side of her body and had made her way to the button of her jeans. He smirked as he felt her ever so slightly pull away from him.

"It's no use fighting it, baby," he whispered in her ear. She felt nauseous.

He undid the button on her jeans and then unzipped them. Andie felt him slide her pants to the ground; she refused to cry. She was not going to give them satisfaction of seeing her cry. At that moment she had never felt so helpless in her life. Before doing anything else, Jimmy ordered his friends to get a towel and bandages.

"I don't want your little cut to get in the way of our fun," he sadistically smiled.

"Go to hell," she sneered.

"Shut up tramp," Jimmy jeered. "Get me the duct tape."

"Now we won't have to hear your irritating voice again," he said once he taped her mouth.

Once she was bandaged up, he moved back in front of her, friends still holding her arms. He grabbed one of her arms, giving his friends a look to let her go. He pushed her roughly against the wall. His face moved to her neck, he breathed her in. He was pressed closely next to her. Andie closed her eyes and prepared herself.

His left hand moved down her side while his right hand undid her bra clasp and slid it off of her, throwing it a few feet away from them. His friends catcalled as they saw this.

"Leave!" he demanded. He waited until they left.

"Now we have a little more privacy, huh?" he murmured.

He began sucking on her neck, making his way down to her breast. He sucked her right breast as his right hand went into her underwear. He kicked her legs apart; his left arm still having a strong hold against her. She felt his fingers enter her vagina as his tongue flicked her nipple. He roughly moved his fingers in and out for a few minutes, warming her up before he came up for air, moving back to suck her neck. Jimmy's hand slipped out of her vagina to pull off her underwear completely. He undid his pants, she saw that he was erect. Before she knew it he thursted himself into her; he pinned her arms above her head. Andie didn't know how long it was, as each passing minute seemed like an eternity, but he finally started to slow down. Once he was done he pulled himself out, redid his pants and then stepped back. He stared at her naked body for a minute, before smirking.

He tossed her panties to her, "Get dressed, whore."

She obediently obliged. She walked to grab her bra, but he snatched it first.

"Did I say you could wear this?"

She glared at him and then shook her head in defeat, not having the energy to fight him.

"That's what I thought," he said as he walked out of the room with her bra in hand. As he left, he also gathered up her jeans and ripped shirt, leaving her only in her panties in the dirty room. His friends came in, tied her arms together behind her back. Next, they lead her over to the pillar and tightly secured her to the pillar by her hands. They paused for a minute and looked at each other and smirked. They all silently agreed. They forced her to stand up and they each took turns having their way with her, while the others watched.

After they were done, they left her there, by herself. Once Andie was sure they left Andie did something she hadn't done in years, she cried.

* * *

Sorry guys, this one was intense. I promise this is as sexually violent as it's going to get though.


	11. Chapter 11

It had been a few days since the whole incident happened. They came back and put her in an oversize shirt that landed mid-thigh on her. She was relieved to be covered up. There would be long periods of time where she was by herself, but she lacked the necessary strength to try and escape. Her wrists were raw and had starting bleeding a few times from the attempts she made to tray and get out of her bindings. She barely slept since the night of her concussion. They didn't give her any food either, just some meager sips of water. What she'd do to have Two-Bit asking her if she wanted any food right now.

"We can't keep her here much longer," said Tony.

"Don't worry, just until tomorrow night," Jimmy reassured him.

"Tomorrow?" asked Tony.

They were talking outside the room in hushed voices, but she could still hear them.

"Yeah, we're going to use her as an example of what'll happen to them if they cross us again. We're taking her to the rally," he said.

"Don't you think that'll just create a riot?"

"Stop worrying, you always worry. Besides they won't dare to try anything when I'm holding this up to her," he said.

She couldn't see what he had, but if he was so sure they wouldn't hurt him, it had to be something detrimental. They came into the room; whatever made Jimmy so cocky was hidden from view. Tony went up to Andie and cut her free from her bindings and stood her up. Her legs were weak from their lack of use and food.

"Don't even think about running away," warned Tony.

"Bring her here," Jimmy said motioning towards the table he was at.

"This is what you're going to do," said Jimmy. "You're going to write exactly what I say."

* * *

"Tomorrow's the big rally," said Ponyboy to us. "Anyone going?"

Whenever the football team made it to states there was always a rally that was put together by the students to celebrate. Both greasers and socs went to party, but it was blatantly segregated, each staying to their own sides, no intermingling.

There were a bunch of responses that came at once, none of which Pony could really discern.

"Hey guys," came a voice, it was Johnny. "This was outside your door."

He handed the piece of paper to Darry.

"What is it?, Darry" I asked.

"A note," he said slowly, taking in whatever he was reading.

"From who?" asked Steve.

"Andie," said Darry, somewhat dumbfounded.

"What? Why would she leave a note instead of coming in?" asked a confused Pony.

I took the letter from Darry.

"Read aloud," said Steve.

"Hey," I read. "Sorry I haven't been around. Going to the rally tomorrow, see you all there. Andie."

"That's weird," pointed out Two-Bit. "Doesn't sound like something she'd write."

"So I guess we're all going to the rally then?" asked Pony.

"Looks like it," I told him, ruffling his hair.

I glanced at Darry, his eyes met mine, full of concern. Two-Bit was right, it didn't sound like something Andie would write. There was something wrong about it that I couldn't quite place. That plus the fact that the gang said they hadn't seen her since the day her and Steve had a smoke in the parking lot, something was going to go down at the rally tomorrow. There was an unease and uncomfortable silence that filled the room.

* * *

"Get moving, Bitch," commanded Tony.

Andie was putting up enough of a fight, to give Tony a hard time, but she still lacked the necessary strength to completely escape his hold on her.

"Come on! We ain't got all day!" yelled Jimmy from the car.

"She's putting up a fight," explained Tony.

"Do I have to do everything around here?" complained Jimmy, getting out of the car.

He came over and slugged her in the gut to get her to stop moving. He held her nose, forcing her to breath out of her mouth. Once Andie opened her mouth he shoved some pills in them, closed her mouth and covered it with his hand until she swallowed. Tony shoveled her forward to the car and threw her in when they finally reached it.

About half an hour later they arrived at the rally. Andie was nauseous and woozy in the backseat. Whatever Jimmy gave her was in full effect now and she could barely stand on her own when they got her out of the car. It just reached dusk and the rally was in full swing. Tony held onto her arm with one hand, in the state she was in she didn't put up any fight. All she wanted was to lie down.

Jimmy started talking to another guy. He kept nodding his head. Jimmy tossed his over to the general vicinity of where Andie and Tony were staying and the boy looked, he took in the scene, still listening to Jimmy, and finally nodded his head and smirked. He disappeared to talk to the one of the boys that was near the front of the rally. Jimmy went back to where Tony and Andie were standing and waited.

"Well," announced the emcee. "It sounds like we have a special demonstration for tonight!"

The emcee's voice boomed across the rally, gaining everyone's attention.

"Please, welcome to the floor, Jimmy Coleminson!" shouted the emcee.

Jimmy made his way to the front of the stage. Tony followed, his grip tightened on Andie as he dragged her along. They waited until Jimmy made the signal.

"Hello everyone," said Jimmy. "I'd like to take this time to educate everyone about what happens if when you cross into one another's world. An example, I'd like to call it."

He made eye contact with Tony, signaling to bring Andie on stage.

"This—" he pointed to Andie. Tony shoved her to where Jimmy was standing. She stumbled and fell to her knees, unable to balance herself. "Is what happens when you try to become something other than what you are. When you intrude upon someone else's lifestyle."

"What's going on?" asked Johnny, trying to see the commotion occurring.

By now the greasers were getting riled up over what was occurring on stage. Everyone in the gang could feel it, I could feel it, a rumble was going to break out soon due to whatever was happening on stage.

"I dunno, Johnnycake, I can't see anything," I said trying to get a clear view of the front.

"Fuck this," said Dally as he started to push his way forward, we all followed him.

Soon enough we got a clear view of what was going on. The soc Jimmy and his friend Tony were in the front of the rally with some girl. On Jimmy's cue, Tony shoved her towards him, but she couldn't stable herself and fell to her knees.

'Oh!" gasped Johnny.

We all looked at him inquisitively.

"Isn't that Andie?" he asked us. His eyes remained glued to the girl.

We all took another good look.

"That fucking bastard, son of a bitch," said Dally. A string of curse words flew from his mouth as he started making his way to Jimmy.

Jimmy noticed Dally making his way him.

"Nuh uh, not so fast," said Jimmy. His hand reached for his back pocket. I thought he was going for a blade. Instead, he pulled out a heater.

"Shit," said Steve. "This ain't good."

"Pony. Johnny. Leave. Now!" ordered Darry. His voice was strong and stern, warning them not to protest. Pony and Johnny caught on and left, turning their heads back every so often to keep tabs on what was going on. Once they reached the edge of the park, my full attention returned to the front.

"One move from any of you greasers, a bullet goes in her. Understood?" his voice roared across the park.

No one moved. By now half of the socs and greasers left, not wanting a rumble. The other half were there to see how this played out. Some of the girls, both greasers and socs who stayed were near tears, trying to get their boyfriends to leave with them. I guess a life threatening situation was what needed to happen in order for class distinction to fade away; ironic, I thought.

Dally stopped.

"Hey now," came Two-Bit's voice. "We don't want no trouble. Just let her go."

"What'd she ever do to you?" I chimed in.

"Oh this is so much bigger than just her. This is to show an example to all of you," he replied.

Andie was still on the ground, on all fours. Jimmy took advantage of this and the fact that none of us were going to do anything, he kicked her in the gut, hard. She crumpled to the ground, clutching her stomach. We all just stood there, helpless. He had a gun and while we didn't know if it was loaded or not, we weren't willing to take that chance.

"Take note, greasers, this is what will happen, if not to you, someone you care deeply about. She was an easy target—easily gave herself up to her to protect her little sister. Now look at her. This broad ain't so tough now. Just goes to show, we will attack you at your weakest points. You mess with us again, maybe it won't be you that we hurt, but your little brother, sister, girlfriend, whoever it is that makes you squirm the most," he warned.

Hearing this the tension built up more amongst us. I saw all of us clenching our fists, knowing me and Darry thought of Pony, Two-Bit thought of his little sister, Steve of Evie, and Dally, well who knew who or what he was thinking of, but I did hear him mumble "fucker." By now the crowd hand dwindled down to about 20 of us, greasers and socs alike, as everyone who wasn't personally invested left, showing Jimmy that his point had gotten across.

At the end of his speech he looked down at Andie and kicked the back of her head. He waited, as she tried to stand up, he stomped on her hand. He grabbed her by the hair and pulled her to her feet. She looked terrible, bruises covered her body and by the way she was holding her body I could tell that bones were either broken or fractured. Andie was holding the hand Jimmy just stomped on with her other, nursing it. Her eyes were glossed over, she was clearly out of it, which would explain why she wasn't fighting back. For Andie to be taking a beating like this, she must've been in a lot of pain. He took the butt of the heater and slammed into into her left cheek bone, then again to her temple. He continued to beat her in front of all of us. Then, he took the gun and aimed it at Andie, next thing we knew, Dally flung himself onto Jimmy and the gun went off. The noise echoed throughout the park.

As soon as Dally tackled Jimmy, he disarmed him, taking Jimmy by surprise. Andie collapsed soon after the gun went off. I rushed over to her.

In the mean time, Steve hand Two-Bit had taken Tony and Darry went to go help Dally. The other greasers picked off the other socs, taking out all their anger towards what Jimmy said on their respective soc.

"Andie," I whispered when I got to her. "Andie, can you hear me?"

Her eyelids fluttered. I took that to mean a yes. I lifted her head and placed it in my lap. I could just faintly tell that she was breathing by the slow, miniscule rise and fall of her chest. I looked for the bullet wound and sighed with relief, it grazed her arm, taking a good chunk of flesh, but at least it didn't hit her straight in the arm, or worse her chest. I applied as much pressure to it as I could.

"Andie, you're going to be okay. You're going to be fine. Just stay with me. Andie," I kept saying in a low voice, close to her ear. I didn't know if she understood me at all.

The next thing I know the gang is around us, the socs had run off. They looked at me.

"She okay?" asked Steve, he had a cut near his eye that was bleeding.

"I dunno. I don't think so," I said, honestly. "She's barely breathing. The bullet grazed her arm."

Two-Bit gave a long, low whistle. Dally, just staring down, his eyes as cold as ice that would make hell freeze over, he took off his shirt, ripping a strip off. He handed it to me; I wrapped her arm, a makeshift tourniquet. Darry and Two-Bit gently lifted her off of me and Darry tossed me his keys to the truck before picking her up to carry her.

"Man, she lost a lot of weight," he noticed.

I got in the drivers seat, he got in the passenger's seat with Andie on his lap. The gang piled in the bed of the truck and I drove to the hospital as fast as I could. The drive was eerily silent. Every minute counted, we weren't sure if Andie was going to make it. We knew the score, living on the Eastside and seeing our fair share of cuts and bruises and from the looks of Andie's, the possibility of losing her was high.

* * *

Reviews? Please?  
For Andie?


	12. Chapter 12

As soon as we got to the hospital, things became a blur. It was a rush. The doctors and nurses swiftly came to our aid and whisked Andie into the back on a gunnery. There was nothing else to do but wait. We made our way to the waiting room, which had a handful of other people waiting. The silence was deafening, but we couldn't bring ourselves to talk. Even Two-Bit looked deep in thought, which was unusual; I couldn't even bring myself to try to life the mood, I was too busy trying to reassure myself Andie was going to be fine.

A half hour, turned into an hour, which turned into two hours. By this time Two-Bit had passed out in his chair, legs draped over one arm, head over the other. Steven kept nodding off every once an a while. Dally was almost out of his pack of smokes; Darry was pacing around and I was sitting in the chair, contemplating.

"This is ridiculous," came Dally's voice. "We've been waiting now for two hours. They should know something by now!"

His voice woke up Two-Bit and Steve.

"I'll go check to see what's going on," said Darry. I followed him, figuring it was better than anxiously waiting.

"Excuse me, Nurse," said Darry at the Nurse's station.

The nurse looked up from her paper work. I noticed her tired, brown eyes, I glanced at the clock and realized it was already two in the morning.

"We're here waiting to hear about Mandie Hurtington. We've been here for a while now," Darry explained.

"I'm sorry, I can only talk to her immediate family," replied the nurse, going back to her paper work.

"Ma'am, did you call her parents?" I asked. Darry looked at me and realized where I was going with this.

"Yes, I did," she replied curtly.

"Are they coming?" I asked.

No reply.

"Let me guess," I continued. "When you called them her father was too sloshed to comprehend anything you said, so you then called her mom. Her mom was apathetic and didn't care, all she was worried about was how much the hospital bill was going to be. They don't care about her; I bet they didn't even ask if she was okay."

The nurse looked surprised; I hit it on the nail, I knew that's exactly what happened.

"Please ma'am, we just want to make sure she's okay," Darry said.

"We _are_ her family," I pleaded with the nurse.

"Well, I do need to know some of her medical history," said the nurse slowly. "I suppose that in the course of asking about her health history there will need to be some explanation of why we need to know this information. Which of you is the oldest?"

"I am," said Darry.

"Very well, follow me," said the nurse. "How old are you?"

"Twenty-one," said Darry.

"It's even better that you're technically an adult," she said as they walked away from me.

I went back to join the gang.

"Know anything?" asked Dally gruffly.

"Nah, Darry's answering some questions now and I think the nurse will tell him what's going on," I replied.

Our heads turned towards where Darry and the nurse were talking. I saw Darry shift his weight when the nurse told him something. I don't know if the rest of the gang could tell, but I could see he was uncomfortable with whatever she just told him. Shortly later he returned.

"Well?" asked Steve rather impatiently.

Darry took a big breath, this wasn't going to be good news.

"She's unconscious right now," he started. "They stitched up where she got shot, but she also has two cracked ribs on her left side, three broken ribs on the right, twenty stitches on her left side, four stitches on her right cheek, a fractured hand, internal bleeding, a concussion, and…"

He paused.

"And, what?" growled Dally.

"And was drugged and sexually abused," finished Darry.

We all just sat there. Silently. The silence was broken when Dally slammed his fist against the wall and stormed out of the waiting room. Drugged and sexually abused? Those words kept echoing in my head.

"Sexually abused," repeated Two-Bit. "As in raped?"

"No shit, Sherlock, what else does 'sexually abused' mean?" barked Steve.

"Can we see her?" I asked Darry.

"Not yet, little buddy. They're still stabilizing her. She has a lot of internal bleeding," Darry told me.

"Those socs must've been beating her pretty hard, huh?" I stated.

"We should've gone to check on her," said Two-Bit.

"I should've known something went down when she never showed up at the house that day," said Steve. He mumbled something inaudible under his breath, probably cursing himself.

"Darrel Curtis?" called the nurse.

We all looked up, Darry stood.

"You may see her now," she told him.

He started to follow her, we all did. Once we reached her room the nurse stopped us.

"Sorry boys, only one of you can go in, the rest have to wait in the waiting room," she explained.

"But nurse—" started Two-Bit.

"Please," I begged. "We've all been here the whole time. We just want to see her. We won't cause no ruckus or anything. Won't even know we're here."

I flashed a grin, hoping it'd work, it normally does. I saw the nurse's shoulders slouch a bit.

"Fine, but don't be in there too long, after all, visiting hours have been over for a while," she said as she walked away.

Darry was already inside by the time we got to the side of her bed. She looked even worse than what Darry told us what had happened to her. She was going to have a scar on her face from the looks of the stitches. Her arms were covered in bruises, her wrists were fully wrapped in bandages, her fractured hand in a cast. That was just what I could see. I sat in the chair next to the bed.

"Andie," I whispered, grabbing her non-fractured hand. Gently I squeezed it, letting her know I was there.

The rest of the gang just stood there quietly, taking in the scene. I placed my head on the bed as tears silently flowed down my face; I didn't want them to see me losing it. When I looked up, I realized that they looked like they were going to lose it to, but being the tough guys they were they held it together.

"Come on, little buddy," said Darry, his firm grip on my shoulder. "We gotta get going. Pony is probably worrying at home. We'll come back tomorrow."

I slowly got up, not wanting to leave her by herself.

"She'll be here tomorrow. Not like she has anywhere else to be," Two-Bit tried to joke, but it just came out rather crudely.

I followed the guys out the door, but stopped once I reached the doorway and looked back at her again. It was at that moment I realized how fragile she looked; exactly how much weight she'd lost and the hell she must've been through. Even unconscious, you could see toll it took on her. Sometimes it was hard to remember she was only a young girl, but at this very moment, it was harder to remember a time in which we had forgotten she was a girl. I watched the slow rise and fall of her chest she breathed before heading out the door.

"See you tomorrow, hun," I thought to myself as we left the hospital. I loved that girl.

* * *

Filler chapter, but a necessary chapter.  
What's going to happen to Andie?  
Don't forget to review! Thanks, loves.


	13. Chapter 13

Today is the third day Andie's been in the hospital. She's woken up a couple times, but was barely lucid. The gang has all been around to see her; we take turns staying with her sometimes. Often times Pony comes after school and does homework – claims it's a quiet place to think. He's been reading to Andie, I think the book is called _The Great Gatsby_.

I walk into her room and sit down next to her, putting my feet up on the bed. I grab the remote from where I last left it and flip through the channels until I find something suitable to watch.

"Soda," I barely hear my name. I quickly look at Andie and see that her eyes are barely open. I swing my feet off the bed and get closer to her.

"Hey Andie, I'm right here," I grab her hand to let her know. Her eyes open a little more and I can see the smallest hint of a smile.

"Where am I? What happened?" she asked. Her voice is rough and gravely.

She tried to sit up but gasped in pain, tightly closing her eyes.

"Take it easy. You don't have to sit up," I calm her down. "You're in the hospital, remember?"

A blank look is on her face.

"Hospital?" she questioned.

"Yeah, hun. You're pretty beat up. Remember Jimmy and Tony? They took you and…" I couldn't bring myself to talk about it. I didn't want to be the one to bring all those memories back to her.

She started blinking furiously, her eyelids starting to flutter. Andie was almost gasping for air, she started trembling. Shit, I thought.

"Nurse!" I yelled running out the room. "Nurse! Help! Something's wrong!"

On cue, two nurses come running down the aisle and into Andie's room. They make me wait near the door, allowing them to utilize all the space in the cramped room. They're talking in medical terms that I couldn't understand. Soon enough the room grows calm and they step away.

"Is she okay?" I ask them worriedly.

"She will be. She was reacting to the pain," explained one of the nurses. "We were able to help her through it, but I'm afraid if this happens again there won't be much more we can do."

"What do you mean?" I asked, confused. "Aren't there pain medication or something like that?"

"Well, there is, but we're under strict orders not to give her any," she told me.

"Orders?" And then it clicked. "You mean her parents don't want any more unnecessary expenses."

She nodded and then walked back to her station.

I was furious at her mom, her dad, and especially Ralph. I walked back to her bed and held her hand. I felt a small squeeze and looked at her.

"I'll be okay," she said. "I vaguely remember, unfortunately."

I looked her in the eyes and told her, "I thought we lost you."

"Takes more than a little beating to get rid of me. I'm like a cockroach," she joked, trying to laugh, but only ending up in pain.

I guess I looked scared witnessing her in that much pain.

"The pain isn't that bad," she reassured me in her soft, gravely voice.

"You know you're voice is kind of sexy like that," I changed the subject, grinning and winking at her.

"Maybe I should just become unconscious more often then."

I leaned over and gave the gentlest of kisses on her lips. Then I leaned next to her ear and whispered, "I love you."

I felt her hand squeeze mine again.

"I love you too," I heard her whisper.

I sat back down and saw her eyes close, she had a smile on her face. For the first time in three days I knew she'd pull through this. Andie was going to be okay.


	14. Chapter 14

**Author's Note: **Sorry that I haven't posted in a while. Things have been crazy around here and will continue to be so for this week, so I probably won't be able to post as often. But don't fret. I'll make it up to you guys! Promise!

* * *

"Andie!" yelled Two-Bit as soon as he realized Andie was awake.

He ran into the room and jumped on the bed. Andie grimmaced in pain.

"What's wrong?" he asked worriedly.

"That hurt her, you idiot!" I told him, shoving him off the bed.

"Guys, stop making the bed move," requested Andie.

"Gee, I'm sorry Ands. Had I known you were still in that much pain I wouldn't have done that," he said.

"Eh, it's okay. I guess I have to get used to moving sooner or later, right?" Andie said.

"Hello Mandie," came a voice behind us, it was her doctor.

"I'm glad to see you're doing better," he reviewed her charts before continuing. "Depending on how today goes, we'll release you in a couple days. We're going to try and get you moving some today."

Andie nodded. She liked staying in the hospital, as weird as it sounded. Once she was released she didn't have anywhere else to go, although she knows she could always stay at my house. But I know she'd feel like a nuisance the entire time.

"If you feel up to I'd like for you to start walking around. Start with around the room and then, when you're ready up and down the hallway. This is to make sure everything is in working order," the doctor explained in layman's terms.

Andie nodded and smiled.

"Whenever you're ready, just let us know and a nurse will help you," he told her getting ready to leave the room.

"Doctor," I called after him. "If it's all the same to you, would it be okay if we helped her out instead?"

The doctor turned around and studied me and Two-Bit for a while.

"Alright," he finally said and then left.

"Just take it easy and don't push it," he told Andie.

I looked at Andie and asked her, " Do you want to try to walk now?"

She nodded her head with a huge grin on her face. She slowly pulled herself up so she was sitting up straight. Two-Bit came to where I was so it would be easier to support her. Gingerly, Andie moved her legs so they hung off the bed.

"God, I hate this hospital gown," said Andie as her legs got tangled in between the gown and the bedding.

"Mmm, well I think that hospital gowns are quite flattering," said Two-Bit with his head crocked, grinning from ear to ear. Andie then realized that the gown had hiked up to her upper thigh.

"Really, Two-Bit? I'm in the hospital and all you can think of is trying to get in my pants? Typical," she said with an eyebrow raised and a slight smirk.

She tugged down her gown with the fastest movement I'd seen her make since she'd been in the hospital. But it wasn't without me noticing old scars on her upper thigh, some looked as though they were burns—I made a mental note to find out what those were from later on. Two-Bit must've been preoccupied with really trying to look up her gown because he didn't say anything about the scars, either that or just kept quiet about it.

"Ready?" I asked her, referring to her standing up for the first time.

"Yeah," she anxiously said. "You gonna just stand there, Two-Bit or are you gonna come help me?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming. Geez, I can see you're feeling better already," he sighed.

Andie glared at him and then gave him the finger. I chuckled, it was good to have Andie back.

Two-Bit and I went to either side of her, she gave us each an arm. We carefully made sure to hold her where she didn't have stitches or broken bones.

"Ready?" she asked us.

"As I'll ever be, baby," said Two-Bit in a jokingly seductive voice. Andie just rolled her eyes.

She crept to the edge of the bed until her toes just touched the floor. She looked at each of us, we both gave her an encouraging nod and she went to stand up. Almost immediately she stumbled into Two-Bit.

"See, I knew you wanted me. You're just throwing yourself onto me now," joked Two-Bit as he helped center her. She gave a weak smile.

I won't lie, her face had the look of pain all over it, but she kept going so I didn't say anything. She took her first step slowly, it looked like she as checking the temperature of a swimming pool, stepping with her toes first. I laughed to myself. Andie kept going, we walked alongside her until she got out the room.

"Do you want to go back?" I asked her. She was struggling and I was scared she was going to fall.

"No, I want to try to make it at least halfway down the hall," she said, determined.

"Okay, we'll be right next to you," I gave her arm a little squeeze for reassurance.

We made it out of her room and just turned left to start the journey down the hall when Andie stopped, her eyes transfixed to whatever was down the hallway.

"Shit," she whispered.

Two-Bit and I followed her gaze and saw Becky, her mom, and step-dad at the end of the hallway talking to a nurse. Andie started breathing faster and heavier, as though she was going to have a panic attack.

"Shit, shit, shit," she said.

She started to turn herself around, forgetting Two-Bit and I were still holding her. This resulted in her groaning in pain as her ribs twisted around. At this, the sound caught the attention of her family and they started walking towards us.

"It's okay," I told Andie. "We wont' let anything happen."

"I can't even be in the hospital in peace," she complained under her breath. "Well, prepare yourselves boys, this is going to be one hell of a ride."

"I see you can be a slut even in the hospital," said Ralph when he came up to her.

"Nice to see you too, Ralph," spat Andie. "What're you here for?"

"Just came by to pay the bill and clean up your mess, as normal," he said. "Get your hands off of her. She's fine."

"Do you even know what happened to her?" I snapped. "I bet you don't. What kind of father are you, not letting allowing the nurses to provide the adequate care for Andie because of money. And don't give me the excuse you're her step-father because you can be a step-father and still take care of your step-children. If this were Becky, you would see to it that she had all the pain meds and all of the best medical attention. Hell, you would've come to see her in the hospital the day she was admitted!"

"Do not talk to me like that! Who do you think you are, filthy piece of shit. You're right, if it were Becky here, I would make sure everything was given to her because she deserves the best, whereas this trash here," he nodded to Andie, "Is a waste of space. I came here to pay for her hospital bill and I get treated like this. Well, Andie, get out today or pay for the damn bill yourself, you hear me!"

"Whatever, Ralph. Just get out of here. You've never cared before and you don't care now. I don't need your help or your money," said Andie.

"You disrespectful, little brat," said Ralph as he walked closer to Andie.

I started to step in front of her in case anything were to happen, but Two-Bit let go of her and stepped between Ralph and Andie.

"I believe the young lady here said for you to leave," said Two-Bit. If you didn't know Two-Bit he can come off as rough and aggressive and he could become just that if someone he cared about was ever threatened.

"Boy, you need to learn some manners," said Ralph as he violently shoved Two-Bit backwards.

Two-Bit fell backwards into us, causing Andie to lose balance. I caught her before she fell. Two-Bit was just about to respond when Becky's voice interrupted him.

"Can we go?" she asked in a bored voice. "I have to be at Rachel's soon."

Ralph glared at Two-Bit and then at us on last time before saying, "Of course, dear. We have better things to do than to be here."  
He turned to Andie one last time and told her, "Consider yourself dead to us. Don't bother coming around or asking for money. Oh and good luck paying this bill off—trust me, I saw the amount."

They turned their backs and left down the hall. I felt and lean into me further and sigh.

"Can we go back inside now, please?" she asked. "I think that was as much excitement as I can take for one day."

Two-Bit came back to us taking her other side and we slowly made our way back to the room.

"Wait," Andie said when we were close to the nurse's station.

"What? Is something wrong?" I asked. I thought maybe Ralph's visit upset her enough for her to need something.

"No nothing's wrong. I just want to check something at the nurse's station," she told us.

We led her there.

"Excuse me," said Andie to one of the nurses. "I was wondering if I could see my preliminary medical bill for my hospital stay."

"Name and room number?" asked the nurse automatically.

"Mandie Hurthington, room 313."

"Ah, yes Hurthington, I remember. Here you go," said the nurse, handing Andie a print out of her bill.

Andie looked at it and her eyes widened. Her face turned little pale.

"Is this the right number?" she asked, almost in disbelief.

"I can double check, but I believe so," said the nurse.

She pulled up Andie's records on the computer to double check and turned back and said, "it is."

"Thanks," said Andie, giving back the bill. "Do you happen to know if there's anyway I can get released earlier? Maybe today?"

"I'd have to check with the doctor, but he'll probably want to keep you at least for a couple more days, seeing as today was your first day moving around," said the nurse.

"If you could please check, ma'am. I really cannot afford to stay here any longer," said Andie.

"I'll let you know."

We went back to the hospital room.

"How much was it?" I brought up the elephant in the room.

"Twenty-five thousand," said Andie, barely audible.

Two-Bit gave a long, low whistle.

"Now I know why Ralph didn't want me to have any pain meds," she joked. "Hell, I'm actually kind of grateful he gave them that order. Now I don't have to pay for them myself!"

"Andie, it's fine. You'll be fine. Health is the most important thing," I reassured her, even though I knew 25K was a lot of money.

"Soda, who are you kidding. I'm the most realistic girl you'll meet. Trust me, I know when something is hopeless and this bill is hopeless," she told me.

"We can help you out," I told her. "I'm sure Darry won't mind—" I said.

"Shut up, you guys can't afford it. Don't worry about it. I'll manage. I just have to make sure I still have my job . . . " Andie's thoughts were drifting off, overcome with the news of paying her bill herself and trying to figure her next steps.

"Well you can stay with us as long as you need," I told her. "We can at least give you a couch."

"Yeah, my house is always open too," Two-Bit told her.

"Sides, my mom really likes you. She keeps saying you're the perfect girl and that I should ask you out," he said.

I couldn't tell if he was serious or not about the last part, but I did know for a fact that his mom did like Andie, so I wouldn't be surprised if she told Two-Bit that.

Andie just rolled her eyes.

"Thanks guys," she said. She finally settled down in the bed and looked exhausted.

"You get some sleep," I told her, flicking on the TV.

"Yeah we'll be here, watching some Micky," said Two-Bit.

Andie nodded and closed her eyes. Her thoughts reeling with ways of being able to pay off this medical debt, the off-chance of putting herself through college was not a mere dream. There was no way that she'd be able to pay for a high education when a week's trip in the hospital cost about one year's tuition of college.

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How would you guys like me to make up my future absence of this week? Review & let me know - open to plot suggestions!


	15. Chapter 15

The doctor said that Andie could be released from the hospital that day, pending she take it easy for another week. By that point I think Andie would've agreed to anything to get out of the hospital. We came back later that night to get her and we took her back home.

"Andie," I said, waking her up—she fell asleep in the car. "We're here. Come on."

She woke up and I helped her out of the car.

"You take my bed, I'll sleep on the couch tonight," I told her.

"No, I'll be fine. I'll sleep on the couch. Besides, you have to work in the morning," she said to me.

"Andie, just take the bed," I told her again. She looked at me and caved.

"Fine, I'm too tired to fight you anyway," she mumbled as she slowly made her way to my room.

She crawled into the bed and almost right when her head hit the pillow she was fast asleep. I took off her shoes and socks.

"Ands," I said to her.

"What?" she said, barely audible.

"Do you want to leave your pants on?" I asked her.

She shook her head no. I undid her pants and slipped them off of her. Again, my eyes lingered on the scars on her upper thighs. I had a better view, there were at least a dozen of them ranging in different sizes and they were all old scars, so I knew they weren't from the Socs. I swear some of them looked like cigarette burns. I pulled out a pair of boxers and put them on Andie before throwing my blanket over her. I went to the hallway closet and grabbed an extra pillow and blanket and went to the couch. Tomorrow, I thought to myself, tomorrow I'll ask her about the scars, if she seems better.

* * *

Sorry guys, this was a major filler chapter!Slowly but surely this is starting to wrap up. I dont really know where else to go after this.

Any ideas? I have a few - we'll see how it works out!

Thanks for all the support. Review please! arigatoo.


	16. Chapter 16

"You saw those scars, right?" Two-Bit asked me the next day.

I nodded, my mouth full of cake. I washed it down with some chocolate milk.

"Yeah, I think I know what they're from," I admitted.

"What, what's from?" asked Steve as he came into the room.

"Andie's scars," said Two-Bit.

"They're from those fucking Socs," said Steve bitterly.

"No, her other ones, the old ones. They're on her upper thighs," he told Steve.

"What?" asked Steve confused.

"Morning, whatcha boys talking about?" asked Andie.

"Well look who finally decided to join the living!" exclaimed Two-Bit. "You hungry?"

"Starving! You know there's no decent chocolate cake in a hospital?" she said.

She grabbed a plate and handed it to me.

"Fill 'er up!" she ordered.

"Yes ma'am," I said mock saluting her.

She smiled; it was good to see her smiling and joking around again. It had been about a week since she got home. She could walk around easily now, but some menial things still made her hurt. Her wrists had healed, but she'll always have a scar on the wrist Ralph burned; having her hands tied while with the Socs didn't help the healing process. As for her side, there'll be a gnarly scar. Right now it's in the red and fleshy looking part of the healing timeline.

"So what were you guys talking about?" she asked, slowly sitting down so not to antagonize her ribs.

The three of us looked at each other with cautionary looks. She saw us silently communicating.

"Well? You boys gonna tell me or am I gonna have to force it out of you?" she asked with her mouth full.

Andie was never one to be "lady-like." She always talked with her mouth full, shoveled food in her mouth, ate at an impressively fast rate, and she never sat with her legs closed. She really needed some girl friends to rub off their habits on her, but then again, those are the qualities you love about her. Those were the qualities that made us often forget she was a girl. Those were the qualities that made _the_ Dallas Winston approve of her hanging out with our gang.

"Your scars," said Steve abruptly. "And before you say it's from the socs, the ones on your thighs."

"What?" she said confused, not expecting that one.

"Andie, I saw them, both Two-Bit and I did when you were in the hospital. What're they from? Was it Ralph?" I asked her.

She paused for a minute and quietly said, "Aw, shit."

She took a deep breath and gathered her thoughts.

"They're nothing," she replied.

"Andie that's a crap load of bull shit," said Steve.

"You know what Steve, I'm really not in the mood to have this conversation," she snapped, slamming her fist on the table, this abrupt motion made her wince and take a sharp inhale.

"Why are you so defensive, Andie?" he egged on. "What're you doing to yourself?"

"Go fuck yourself Steve Randle!" she yelled at him.

Andie pushed her chair out from behind the table and got up. She walked as quickly as she could to the door and slammed it behind her.

"Really Steve?" I told him. "That was the best way you could think of to bring this up?"

I got up and followed her outside. Luckily for me, she was just sitting on the porch steps.

"Andie," I said, sitting next to her. "We just want to make sure you're okay."

I placed my hand on hers. She looked up at me, I couldn't read her face, but I did notice that she pulled her hand away from mine.

"I'm fine," she bitterly said. "Please just go away."

"Just tell me, what's going on. It's only me. I won't tell the guys," I promised her.

"I don't care if you tell them or not. The fact of the matter is that I don't want to talk about this. At least not yet," she told me.

"Aright," I said, not wanting to push the issue.

I sat there a while longer and then got up and left to go back inside. I paused at the door and watched her for a moment. She lit a cigarette and began to smoke. Every so often she'd play with the burning cigarette. I never noticed it before, but the longer I watched her, the more I realized that when she smoked she'd always play with her joint. Her fingers would dangerously flirt with the burning end as she twirled it between her fingers, sometimes it'd accidentally brush it against her wrist; it was mindless to her, she didn't even notice she was doing it. I knew something was definitely wrong and I had a feeling I knew what it was – I was determined to make her vocalize it and confirm my suspicions.

"Hey," said Andie when she came back into the room. "I'm sorry for snapping earlier. I wasn't expecting that question or the fact that you knew about the scars."

Steve nodded, accepting the apology.

"So…" started Two-Bit. I already knew where he was going with this. "Want to explain?"

Andie to a deep breath.

"Uhm, well," she started. "I guess you guys would find out sooner or later. I guess I was just hopeful that I you guys would never find out. But here goes nothing."

She gave us a brief smile before continuing. When she'd ramble we knew that she was nervous.

"So, you know how the Socs—the Socs they raped me?" she mumbled the last part quickly.

We nodded.

"That wasn't the first time that's happened," she said.

"What?!" yelled Steve.

"Relax, it was a long time ago," Andie explained. "I was twelve."

"Who?" I asked her gently.

"Who else? Ralph," she answered, looking away from us, making sure she didn't make eye contact.

"That bastard!" yelled Steve, this time standing up.

For once Two-Bit didn't say anything.

"Sit down, Steve," said Andie. "It was a long time ago, it doesn't make it right, but it was a long time ago. After the initial time it happened, he'd always come back. Whenever I'd refuse, well, I'd get a nice, new permanent leg décor."

I was in shock. I saw how many scars she had, there were more than a dozen.

"That many times?" I asked her. "Why didn't you tell us? You could've stayed here. We could've helped you. Mom and dad could've helped, they were still alive…"

She smiled at me weakly and patted my arm, as if I was the one who needed the console.

"Soda, I was twelve. I was young and scared. When an adult male who's your guardian threatens you, you tend to listen to them," she told me.

Andie continued, "He told me if I were to ever tell he'd deny it and then make me regret it. He said he'd start doing what he was doing to me, to Becky. At that time, I believed him."

"Why do you always have to play the goddamn hero, Andie?" came Dally's voice.

At the sound of Dally's voice Andie jumped a little, not expecting anyone else to be there. He was standing in the doorway leaning against the wall, with the look of disgust on his face.

"Why can't you just think of yourself for once and leave that little bitch to fend for herself?" he asked her.

"She's my sister," countered Andie. "Soda and Darry would do the same for Ponyboy."

"Yeah well, Pony actually loves his brothers," spat Dally.

Dally had struck a nerve as Andie grimmaced.

"That was a low blow, Dal," I told him.

We all knew how much Andie loved Becky, even though the feeling wasn't mutual.

"What about the burns?" asked Two-Bit, bringing the focus back to the original topic.

"I did those to myself," she admitted. "For a long time I forgot what it was like to feel anything. Happiness, sadness, pain. I was in an emotion void. I'd burn so I could feel something; it reminded me that I was still alive and could still have some sort of emotion."

"But we never knew you felt like that," I told her.

"I was able to fake it, Soda. And, no offense, but when you're a thirteen year-old boy, you don't notice as much as you think you do," she said to us.

"I guess so," I answered. "But still."

"That bastard," said Steve again. "He has some balls to do that to a twelve year old. Didn't your mother know?"

Andie scoffed, "Even if she did I don't think she'd care. She doesn't give two shits what happens to me. I thought that was pretty obvious."

"We care about you Ands!" said Two-Bit pulling her into a bear hug. "And don't you forget it!"

She laughed a bit before shoving Two-Bit off of her, freeing herself.

Two-Bit was right, we care a lot about Andie, even if we don't always show it. She's part of our gang and we take care of our own, always looking after each other. Whether it be Johnny after his folks beat him or Steve after a shouting match with his pops or Dally after he's been in the cooler, we worry about each other and our house is always home base wherever we are in life.

"Come here, Ands," I told her.

As she came to me, it was my turn to pull her into my lap on the couch and give her a hug. Rather than pushing me off like Two-Bit she stayed on my lap and in my arms, snuggling closer to my chest.

"You're the best girl in the world and I love having you in my life," I whispered in her ear so only she could hear.

She smiled and said back, "I think you're pretty great yourself, stud."

"Thanks for telling us what happened to you. You know we're always here," I reassured her.

"Don't you worry that little head of yours. I know that for a fact," she told me.

She was still in my arms and stayed that way for a good length of time.

* * *

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Review!


	17. Chapter 17

"Well if it isn't my dear friend, Andie," said Jimmy as he passed her in the school hallway.

Andie continued to walk by him, flipping him the bird as she passed, not bothering to make eye contact.

"I see you didn't learn anything from our last meeting," he sneered following her.

He grabbed her from behind and flung her against the hallway lockers. The bell had already rung and everyone was in class, it was just the two of them in the hallway.

"Piss off, Jimmy. I'm late for class and so are you," she glared back at him, trying to get away, his grasp on her strengthened.

"You better behave and be nice to me next time you see me, otherwise Becky may fall to the same as you," he had a glint in his eye.

"Go right ahead and have your way with Becky, but just remember, me and her aren't the same. Whereas you got away with what you did with me, Becky's a soc and trust me her parents care about what happens to her. You lay a finger on her, she will tell her folks and charges will be pressed. And don't worry, I'll be there to testify against what you did to me to serve as an example of your reckless, sadistic behavior," Andie said, outsmarting Jimmy.

His hold on her loosened, he hadn't thought about what Andie had just said. It was true. Messing with a greaser was one thing, but if you messed with a soc, it was a whole different ballpark—especially if that soc was a young girl.

"Just some things to think about," said Andie as she slipped away from his grip. As she walked by him she patted him on the shoulder, satisfied with his reaction.

"Oh, and one last thing," she said, turning around to face him. "You hurt her, I have a lot of pent up aggression towards you and trust me when I say that I'll fucking take you on without batting an eye. See you around."

"Hey Buck," said Andie after walking into his place.

Buck nodded a hello.

"I heard your hiring a barback. I want the job," she said bluntly.

Buck looked up from the cash register and studied her for a moment.

"You realize you'll be working the parties and can't get drunk right?" he asked her.

"Obviously," she told him. "Look, Buck, I need the money. Hospital bills are damn expensive."

He paused and thought about it for a while and then a smirk appeared on his face.

"What the hell. I can use a girl behind the bar and with the way you drink, at least I know you, know your shit," he said.

"Thanks Buck," Andie said.

"You start tomorrow night," he told her.

"As in the night of the party?" she clarified. Andie had planned on attending that party, her first one since her incident with the Socs.

"You got a problem with that?" he gruffed.

"I was just making sure," she said.

"Yeah, tomorrow night at the party. Get here an hour before it starts—7 PM," he ordered her.

She nodded and was about to head out of his place.

"Oh," he said, catching her before she left. "Wear something low cut and tight and something short. . I know for a fact it makes the boys go wild and they'll spend more money, which means more tips. The more you show the more, the more the boys will owe"

Andie glared at him, her lips moved the right side of her face.

"We'll see. Depends on if I feel like dressing up like on of your sluts. I'm your bar keep, not one of your bedroom whores!" she shouted to Buck as she walked out the door, making sure he heard her.


	18. Chapter 18

"Andie, I don't know if you should have taken the job at Bucks," said Darry worriedly.

"Darry, it's fine – what's the worse that can happen? I mean I go to basically all his parties anyway," Andie pointed out.

"I guess, but it's different when you're the one that has to cut people off," he brought up.

"What you think I can't hold my own?" she asked cocking her eyebrow.

"Darry," I said, stepping in. "I think she'll be fine. If she gets in any trouble we'll be there and jump in."

"Yeah Darry, they'll be there. Besides, I need the cash. And you don't expect me to just stay here without helping out do ya?" she told him.

"Andie, you don't need to pay us any money for crashing here," Darry said. "You guys are family."

"Well since I'm family, then I should be pitching in to help with bills," Andie stated. "Aside from paying off my hospital bill, what else do I need money for?"

"College," said Darry.

Darry was insistent that Pony and Andie go to college. He truly believed they were the only two that could make it out of this town. I think in a way he's trying to live vicariously through them since he never got the chance to go off to college.

"Alright, I'll save some of it for college, but whatever I don't need to pay the bill, I'm giving to you, savvy?" she compromised.

"Fine, you win," said Darry, giving into Andie.

Andie smiled, she could always get Darry to see things her way, eventually.

"Are you coming to the party tonight?" she asked Darry. She already knew the rest of us were going, besides Pony and Johnny—some new movie just came out and they'd rather see that.

Darry hesistated.

"Come Darry, you can see me in action and protect me, in case anything bad breaks out over there," she reasoned.

"I don't know I have to work tomorrow morning. If I do come, it'll just be for a little bit. If I'm there, I'm there," he told her.

I guess that answered satisfied Andie 'cus she dropped the subject and came over to where I was sitting. She plopped herself on my lap and stared at me.

"What?" I asked her after a while.

"Nothing," she said smiling.

"You're acting strange, you know that right?" I told her.

She continued smiling and leaned into my ear so Darry couldn't hear her, "Maybe tonight we could try and commence in what I was trying to do the last time Buck had a party."

I pulled away and looked at her, she had a sly smile on her face; i must have had a look of shock must have been on my face.

"Or not," she said sliding off my lap to sit next to me. "You don't have to look so shocked, you can just say no and I'd be okay with that to."

I finally composed myself, "Maybe. Depends on how your first night of work goes."

She smiled, seemingly happy with that response, before standing up.

"Well," she said. "I gotta go, Buck wants me there at 7. I'll see you there?"

"Yeah, save me a drink," I told her.

"But of course! You got ins with the new bartender," she said while winking at me.

With that she left to go to Bucks. It was almost 6:30, the party would be in full swing in about two hours. Knowing the gang we'd be there closer to 9 that night. Hope Andie is ready for the chaos and calamity that goes on behind the bar.

As I predicted, by the time we got to the party it was 9:20 and it was already in full swing. The room was smoky and the music resonated from the walls, you could feel the bass as you walked along the floors. Everywhere you looked there were scantily clad girls and making out with hoods, along with beer bottles and empty glasses randomly strewn throughout the rooms. We immediately go to the bar to check on Andie.

"Hey babe," said Two-Bit to Andie. "Fancy getting me a beer?"

Andie looked up with a tough look on her face, but once she realized it was us she broke out a smirk.

"Well, it's about time you guys got here. All the booze is almost gone," she joked as she got out a beer for Two-Bit. She flicked off the top and handed it over to him.

"You guys want something?" she asked Steve, Dally, and myself.

"A beer's fine," I told her.

"Same," said Steve.

"Give me a shot of whiskey. The good stuff, not that crap Buck tells you to give to people," said Dally.

Andie grabbed two beers for me and Steve, but hesitated going for the good whiskey.

"Come on Ands, I ain't got all night," said Dally, noticing her hesitation. "If Buck has a problem with it, tell him to find someone else to ride for him."

She caved and poured him a shot of the good stuff and quickly put it back before anyone else noticed.

"So, how's work going?" I asked her, sitting down at the bar. By this time Two-Bit went to scout out a potential poker game, Steve went to Evie, and Sylvia somehow found her way to Dally and led him upstairs.

"It's fine, I'm just bummed I can't drink," she told me truthfully. "Being sober at Buck's is almost unforgivable! It's actually really boring here if you're not drunk."

I laughed. Typical, aside from Two-Bit, Andie would easily be the next one in the gang who loved to drink.

"What are you wearing?" I asked her, finally seeing what she was wearing.

She glared at me and then rolled her eyes.

"Fucking Buck," she said. "Apparently what I was wearing when I came in wasn't to his "high" standards and he made me change into _this._ I told him I didn't want to look like his whores. Frick, who the hell does he think I am? Sylvia? Dressing me in this shitty outfit."

I laughed again, it was hilarious to see Andie looking like a girl and even funnier when you hear her talk and she sounds like the antithesis of one.

"Well, don't worry hun, when you open your mouth to talk you'll scare all the boys away. They'll think its another boy in drag. You have the mouth of a sailor," I teased her.

"You're an asshole Sodapop Curtis," she joked back, throwing a dirty rag at me.

Truth be told, Andie actually looked hot. But I don't dare tell her that. She had on this tight, black shirt that came to right above her belly button and low rise, cut off short shorts that barely covered her ass. You could see her scar on her side that the socs gave her, but that made her look tough and added to the whole sex appeal that was exuding off of her. She pulled her hair into a messy ponytail, some of the hair fell in front of her face.

"Hey don't be calling my buddy an asshole!" chimed in Two-Bit, on his fourth beer already. "Besides, if it weren't for all that make up on your face. . ."

"I'd watch what you'd say, Two-Bit, buddy. Remember, I have the power to cut you off!" warned Andie in tone that sounded like she was joking, but could be serious.

"You'd be just as beautiful as you are without it?" said Two-Bit meekly. "Can I get another beer?"

Andie rolled her eyes and slid him over another beer bottle.

"You better watch yourself Two-Bit, you're already on my shit list for the night!" Andie laughed.

"You want another one, Soda?"

"Yeah, another would be great," I told her. "What time do you get off tonight?"

"Two-thirty," she told me as she bent over to grab another beer from the fridge under the bar. I took that moment to sneak a peak of her behind. When she came back up with my beer, I was smirking; she must've caught on to what I was doing cus she cocked her eyebrow.

"Now that's the kind of behavior I'd expect out of him," she said, pointing her finger at Two-Bit.

I flashed her one of my innocent smiles that makes girls swoon.

"That ain't working on me tonight, Sod," she said as she made her way down the bar to get more drinks for one of the boys from the other gang. But before she reached there I saw her wink at me.

I looked at my watch it was already 11:45 PM, it seemed like we had just gotten to the party. I guess time does fly when you're having fun. Maybe things will get even more fun at the after party, meaning once Andie got off of work and we got her really drunk. Steve, Two-Bit, and I had been talking about that and agreed to "celebrate" Andie's new job after her first shift by getting her wasted, whether it happens or not depends on our inebriated states by the time 2:30AM rolls around.


	19. Chapter 19

"Guys, enough!" groaned Andie. She had finished work and we were hanging at Buck's drinking a bit more.

"Since when is Andie unable to handle her alcohol?" asked Steve.

Andie glared at him, "Well I have been working since 6:30 tonight and I'm tired."

"Come on, just one more shot, you can do it!" I told her. I was pretty drunk myself.

"Last one," she slurred a little.

She climbed over the bar to get a bottle of tequila and poured a shot.

"Who else?" she asked holding up the bottle for us. "If I'm doing this, at least one of you will be joining me."

"Ah, what the hell," said Two-Bit sliding his shot glass to her. "Come on guys, one more aint gonna kill us."

Me and Steve nodded, Andie poured us all another shot and got out the salt and lime.

"Welp, here's to us!" she said lifting up her shot before licking the salt, slinging back the shot and sucking the lime. God, it was so hot to watch her do that. We followed suit.

Half an hour later we all left Buck's, staggering home, laughing loudly. Andie was hanging off of me, using me as support, which was funny because I wasn't as stable on my feet as she thought I was. She leaned a little more into me and I felt myself sway to the right and lose balance, causing her to fall on me. Almost instantly we started laughing, she looked at me grinning, making me grin crazily. Luckily, we had fallen on grass that was part of the public park, which cushioned our fall. By now the Steve and Two-Bit were a ways ahead of us in their own little world, jumping and flipping in the street trying to out do each other.

I crawled over to her and kissed her. As I deepened the kiss I felt her start to lie back down on the grass; I followed her. My hands started to go up her shirt as her hands pulled my shirt above my head. After I got her shirt off, my hands went for her bra clasp and I felt her hands trail down my chest, stopping once she reached the button on my jeans. She quickly undid my pants and started to pull them off; as she was doing that I kicked off my shoes and slid off my pants myself. By now I had taken off her bra and flung it somewhere nearby on the grass, my hands explored her chest. I followed Andie's scar down her body until I hit the waistband of her shorts; my hand followed the waistband until they found her button and I quickly undid her shorts.

She was just about to take off her shorts when we heard a gruff voice catch our attention.

"Alright kids, time to break it up," said the voice.

I flung my head up to look and low and behold two police officers were standing there.

"Shit," I mumbled.

Andie's eyes widened when she realized what was going on. She quickly pulled up her shorts and redid them, while I was still on top of her.

"We're going to need to you put your clothes back on and then come with us," said the man.

I crawled over to Andie's bra and tossed it to her before going to my own clothes. Once I was fully dressed, I went over to Andie and helped her up.

"Aright you two, we're taking you down to the station," said the officer.

"For what? We didn't do anything wrong," I stated.

"Yeah, you can't arrest us without cause!" piped up Andie.

"Well for one thing, I can arrest you for public drunkenness and secondly, public indecency," said the officer. "Get in the car, we're taking down to the station."

I started walking towards the car, inwardly groaning at myself for being so stupid. Darry is going to be so pissed when he has to bail us out. Once I got in the car, I realized that Andie was still standing in the same spot.

"Come on missy, we don't got all night," the other police officer said, pushing her towards the car.

Andie glared at him and then said, "Keep your hands off of me, asshole. We weren't even bothering anyone. I bet you guys just need to meet your quota or something. Since when did cops even start roaming our side of the streets? Sure, when there's real trouble a cop can't be found, but for something menial like this, they pop up all over the fucking place!"

"That's enough out of you, young lady," said the cop as he turned her around and cuffed her. He then led her over to the car and basically threw her in the back seat with me.

"Really, Andie? You had to go manic on a cop?" I asked her.

She sighed and shrugged her shoulders.

"We should've just stayed at Buck's," she replied.

The cops finally un-cuffed Andie once we got to the station. They placed us in separate holding cells and told us they were holding us over night. We each got one phone call.

Andie looked at me through the cell that separated us and hollered, "You wanna call Darry or you want me to?"

I looked back at her and sighed, "I guess I will. He's my brother after all."

"Which one of you wants your call first?" asked our arresting officer.

"I do," I answered.

The officer escorted me from my cell to the phone where I called the house. It was now four in the morning.

"Hello?" grumbled Darry.

"Hey, Dar," I started slowly.

"Soda? Do you know what time it is, where are you? I've been worried sick. Steve and Two-Bit are here and said they lost you and Andie," Darry started scolding me. His voice was now alert and awake.

"Funny story. We're actually at the station. We were kinda… arrested.." I told him.

"You were what?!" roared Darry.

"Can you come pick us up, please?" I asked him meekly.

"What did you do?" he asked.

"It's kinda a long story, I'll tell you when you come get us?" I tried to get out of it.

"You are in big trouble," said Darry. "I'll be there in the morning."

I hung up the phone and told the officer Darry would be here in the morning. He led my back to my holding cell. After he stopped at Andie's cell.

"You want your call now?" he asked her.

"I don't need a phone call, I'm with the Curtis'," she replied.

"Okay, since you're not making a call and because you are a minor I will need to phone your parents. Phone number please."

"They won't care," she quickly said back.

"Number, now," ordered the officer.

Andie gave him her number reluctantly—I'm pretty sure she gave her mom's taking her chances that they didn't care about her enough to do anything about this incident.

The next morning Darry came around 8:30, before he went off to work. They released me, but held Andie. I overheard Darry trying to talk them into releasing her into his custody. And as if on cue, her mother came barging in.

"I'm here to pick up my delinquent daughter," she said.

The officer chuckled, if only he knew she wasn't joking when she said that.

"Just a minute ma'am, I'll go and get her," he said cordially.

Andie came back out with the officer and as soon as she saw her mom I swear I saw fear in her eyes.

"Sir, do I have to be released to her?" she quickly asked.

"Andie, stop it and just get over here," said her mother.

"Officer, do I have to be released?" she asked again.

The officer gave her a quizzical look before responding, "I suppose not, but then you'll have to spend your time in here."

"How long is that?"

"Two weeks."

I could see Andie weighing her options.

"Officer, can't she just be released to us?" I asked him.

Her mom turned to me and if looks could kill, I would've been dead.

"I do not give my authority for my daughter to be released to these hoodlums!" exclaimed her mother.

"I'll stay here," said Andie.

"Are you sure?" asked the officer.

"Yes," she replied.

"Andie, come on. Just get out of here," I pleaded.

She gave me one of her silent looks that told me I should know better.

"Come on, Little Buddy, lets go home," said Darry to me.

He turned to Andie and said, "See you later, kiddo. Behave."

She smiled weakly and nodded.

You'd imagine that Andie would've been locked up before, given her hard facade, but the truth is this was her fist time being arrested. Granted the only other time I had been in holding was for disturbing the peace with Steve, but Andie was a good girl, well, considering her circumstances, she could've come out a lot worse. She could've ended up like Dally.

I turned around and saw Andie being led back to her cell and her mother arguing with the officer.

I could make out what she was saying from outside the station.

"What gives her the right to this decision?" Andie's mom yelled. "She's my daughter. I demand she be released at once! Ungrateful brat, making me drive all this way, only to reject my help. Typical. This is the last time I help you Mandie! You're dead to me!"

* * *

Like the new twist?  
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	20. Chapter 20

"I can't see why you wouldn't want to go home with her. She seems so pleasant," joked the officer.

Andie looked at him questioningly. The stories she heard about the station weren't glamorous and she'd heard that these officers could be asses. Then again, she had heard this from Dally and it was easy to see why they'd be so curt towards him.

"Yeah, at least you don't have to live with that," Andie replied.

"Are you sure you don't' want to go with her?" he asked again. "She's still here. I'm sure she'll let you still go with her. She can't be that bad."

"She's not the bad one," mumbled Andie.

"What was that?" asked the officer.

"Nothing. I'm sure, sir. I'll just stay here. Trust me, it's for the best," she replied.

"Alright," sighed the officer. "I was just looking over your record and you don't have one. I don't want this to go down and hurt your credibility in the future."

"Thanks for caring," she told him. "But I'm fine. I can take care of myself."

"I can tell you've done a bang up job so far," he said sarcastically, nodding towards her scar on her side.

Andie shrugged, "What's it to you?"

"You and that Soda kid, just don't seem like the rest of them. You two are different, just in the wrong place at the wrong time," he remarked.

"Well, you live and learn," she said shortly.

The officer started to walk away.

"And the scar isn't from a fight!" she hollered to him, defending herself.

The officer stopped and turned around.

"What happened?" he asked her.

She hadn't expected that. This was the first time an adult, aside from the Curtis' had ever cared about what happened to her.

"It's a long story," she replied.

"Well it's a slow day here," the officer said.

"Why do you want to know? What do you care? I'm just some kid off the street from the East side. A delinquent, a hoodlum," she said skeptically.

"Like I said before. I can tell you're different. I've seen a lot of these delinquent hoodlums you talk about and trust me, while you put on this harden demeanor, that's all it is an act. I can tell you care about things. You're no Dallas Winston," the Officer told her.

Andie scoffed when he mentioned Dally's name.

"What?" he asked.

"Nah, nothing. Just that Dally's my buddy. Guess we all end up in the same place eventually, huh?" she laughed.

The officer smiled, "My name's Will."

"Andie," Andie said. "But you probably already know that."

"So, you going to tell me how you got that scar?"

Andie cocked her eyebrow.

"You wanna know that bad?"

"Help me pass the time," Will told Andie, while puling up a chair.

"It were the soc—some kids from the west side," started Andie, remembering that adults didn't like the slang terms of "socs" and "greasers."

"They were harassing my little sister and I stepped in. I told them I'd go with them if they left her alone and didn't harm her and well I got this lovely momento," she said, keeping the story brief.

"Wait, your sister wouldn't be Becky Clement, would it?" asked Will.

"Yeah…" said Andie confused. "How do you know her?"

"She came to the station and reported the incident. She looked scared and was a little beat up."

"Beat up?" Andie's voice rose. "Those little shitheads. Last time I fricking trust those goddam socs."

Will raised his eyebrows in surprise to her outburst.

Once Andie became aware of her explicative language, she briefly apologized.

"So, you mean to tell me, Becky came here?" she was still finding it hard to believe.

"Yes, she told us what happened and wanted us to look for you," he explained.

Andie was in shock and awe – this was the first time Becky had ever thought of anyone but herself. She couldn't help be feel a little touched her step-sister would do something for her.

"We looked all over town, but couldn't find the boys, the car, or you," Will went on.

"I doubt you would've said," said Andie darkly. "They took me somewhere outside of town and held me some run down warehouse. I wouldn't know how to get back there; going in I was blindfolded and coming out I was drugged."

Will looked shocked, "I'm sorry to hear about that. Would you mind giving a statement? Maybe we can get these boys and lock them up."

Andie looked at him skeptically and weighed her options.

"Who would believe me over them? I mean, I know the score, no one is going to believe a girl like me over kids like them with reputable parents. I barely have parents," she rambled. "Sorry Will, but I don't really feel like talking anymore."

"Howdy sexy," came a voice behind me, squeezing my ass.

I was at the sink in the bathroom brushing my teeth. I turned around.

"Ahnd-dee!" I yelled with a mouth full of toothpaste. I spit and rinsed.

"What're you doing out? I thought you had another week?"  
"That's what good behavior gets you, a get out of jail free card," she said while shimmying her shoulders a bit.

"You set free on good behavior? Or was it for _good behavior_?" I asked, implying a sexual innuendo.

"If only. Besides, if it was for that, wouldn't you think I'd be bragging about it to Dally? Now that's one way he can't get out of jail," she joked.

"Alright," I laughed. "Point taken."

"So, about the night we got arrested. How was explaining that to Superman?" she asked me.

"Something I never want to hear again," said Darry coming into the bathroom, shaking his head.

"Honestly, the two of you. I don't know what to do with you guys," he said, moving us out of the bathroom so he could take a leak.

Andie smiled mischievously while I grinned.

"At least it wasn't for robbing a store or something," stated Andie.

"Maybe next time the two of you could not be so …" Darry pasued thinking of the right word.

"Adorable?" I said.

"Passionate?" said Andie.

"Stupid," said Darry. "Maybe next time the two of you could not be so stupid. Can you imagine being sent to a boys home over something like that?"  
-

The next day I walked with the gang to school. I wasn't scheduled to work for another hour and had time to kill, so why not join them for the walk. The bell had already rung and they were late to class, as usual.

"See you later, handsome," flirted Andie as she made her way to English. She winked at me as she left.

I rolled my eyes smiling.

"Yeah, see you around, handsome," teased Steve as he left with Two-Bit.

"Bye Soda, see you at home," said Pony.

I started to head off to work when I heard a scuffle coming from the hallway. I went to go check it out, to make sure it wasn't Pony getting thrashed by some Socs. Low and behold it were Socs, just not Ponyboy getting the brunt of it; it was Andie.

"So I heard you had a heart to heart with one of the cops at the station," said Jimmy.

"What's it to you?" sneered Andie.

If she was afraid she wasn't showing it. In fact she looked pissed and vengeful rather than scared.

"You know they questioned us during your little, absence from this town," he said.

"Oh yeah? I bet you had a lot of wiseass answers to keep them running in circles," she jeered back. "How'd you hear about my and the cop's talk anyway?"

"I have a friend who works at the station who told me. Trust me, I have friends everywhere," said Jimmy.

I hung back behind a couple lockers, seeing that Andie was holding her own, I waited to see how this played out. I didn't want to scare Jimmy into doing something to Andie.

"Well don't worry, I didn't tell them anything," she said.

"Why is that?" he asked.

"Because a shithead like you deserves worse than the legal system, you deserve some good ol' vigilante justice. Now fuck off," she spat.

"Fucking whore," said Jimmy.

There was a pause in their dialogue. This caused me to step out from the lockers to see what was going on. I saw Andie walking away, giving him the finger, while Jimmy was lighting a cigarette. He then grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back.

"You bitch. You never learn," he said.

I watched him pull back the sleeve of her jacket and press the lit butt of his cigarette into her skin.

"Hey!" I yelled. "Get off of her!"

"Make me," he dared.

I sprinted towards him and tackled him to the ground. I got in a few good punches before he was able to kick me off of him. Andie grabbed me and stepped in front of me causing me to stop and landing her a blow to the face that was meant for me. I was just about to push her to the side when she grabbed my arm and turned us toward the exit.

"Come on Soda," she mumbled. "Lets get out of here."

I followed her, but looked back at Jimmy, he wore a smug look on his face. Once we got out side I exploded on her.

"Andie! Why'd you step in front of me! I was handling it!" I yelled at her.

She gave me a dirty look and said, "Yeah and if a teacher caught you they would've called the cops. They could arrest you for trespassing and aggravated assault. We just got out of holding, Darry would be pissed to find out you got thrown back in there within two weeks. And the state would see Darry as ill-suited guardian for you and Pony; they'd take you away from me!"

I stood there bewildered. That thought hadn't even crossed my mind, I was reacting on pure adrenaline. Leave it to Andie to be rational even in the midst of chaos. How does she even think two steps ahead like that?

"Wait a minute," I said, a thought dawning. "Did you say they'd take us away from you?"

"What?" she asked flabbergasted. "I never said –"

"Yeah you did, you said they'd take us away from you."

"I, uh, well. Maybe I did?" she finally admitted. "Well it's true. You guys would be taken away from me. You're family; how am I supposed to live without my two pesky brothers? Besides, with the two of you gone Darry would be pathetic and become God knows what, and plus I need a place to stay, with an occasional sleeping buddy."

"Really Andie? How are you able to think about sleep and sex all the time, you're worse than Two-Bit sometimes," I told her without thinking.

"I never said anything about sex," she told me laughing. "I was implying some spooning and cuddling. But I mean, we could always partake in those physical exercises."

I grinned at her as we entered the house and started to lead her to my room.


	21. Chapter 21

Hey guys, sorry for such the long absence. Things have gotten hectic and needless to say, writing was not on the top of my priority list. Updates will probably be more sporadic for the next few weeks as summer school is starting and I have to work out new job hours. Bear with me, I have some ideas in mind!

* * *

"Some physical exercises?" I smirked once we got into my bedroom.

"Yeah, you know some football or playing board games or dancing. What kind of physical exercises were you thinking about?" she joked, playing dumb with me.

I stood there shaking my head at her. Sometimes she could act like such an idiot, but I say that with the upmost love.

"Well, if we're just gonna stand here all day, I guess I should go back to school," she said serious. "I don't think I can really afford to miss anymore classes— "

I cut her off and grabbed and pulled her into a kiss. A real kiss, not one of our drunken kisses that we partook in in an inebriated state, but a real, rational kiss, one in which I was fully aware of my actions. At first she was shocked, but then kissed me back.

I led us to my bed and pushed her down onto it. I felt her smile as she moved away and took off her shirt. I followed suit. I ran my hand along the side of her body and undid her pants. I slid them off of her and threw them on the floor, before quickly taking off my own. Then, I crawled back to her. As came back to her, my hand followed her leg; I could tell she hadn't shaved recently, but I would've been shocked if she did. Like I said – Andie should have been born a boy.

I started to kiss her again, my hand stopping at her upper thigh. My fingers reached her scars and paused over them. I could feel them; it was as though I was reading brail. I was tracing one of them with my thumb when I became aware of what I was doing due to Andie's handing being placed on top of mine. She gently, but firmly grabbed my hand, stopping me from feeling her scars. She took my hand and guided it up towards her chest, placing it right below her bra line.

I took this as invitation to move on. My hand slid under her bra as I massaged her breast. I ran my fingers over her nipple, I could feel it starting to grow hard. I took my hand out of her bra and began moving my finger in a circular fashion over her harden nipple.

She pulled out of the kiss and buried her face in my neck before starting to kiss it. My hand went behind her back to remove her bra. She took it off. My hands couldn't help but to explore her naked upper body. She started running her hands through my hair, driving me crazy. She kissed my jawline before making her way back to my lips and flipping us over. She was now on top.

Andie ran a trail of kisses from my neck to my navel, taking her time, slowly sucking. From my neck, where I'm pretty sure there'll be a hickey tomorrow, to the top of my pectoral muscle, to my nipple, to the upper abdominal, to my hip bone. She paused and looked up at me. There was a glint in her eye that made her look mischievous. She placed her hand on my dick and began stroking it; I was starting to become aroused and a small moan escaped my lips. She grinned slightly. She started to stroke harder and faster until I couldn't take it any longer and I flipped her over. I threw off her underwear and mine.

I paused for a second and looked at her. She wrapped her hands behind my head and pulled me into a kiss. My body fell effortlessly onto hers. Her legs opened enough for me to go inside her. I obliged her and started moving back and forth inside of her. Andie started moaning. As I pulled in and out, in and out and begin to move faster and harder, she wrapped her legs around me. As we continued, Andie was screaming my name out, moaning. She flipped us over so she was on top of me, completely straddling me she began to grind on top of me, with me still inside her. I began to moan; she felt so good. Andie began to kiss me, erupting my senses as she continued to rock her lower half. I turned us over again to finish.

A few minutes later we finished and were lying, naked, on top of the sheets trying to catch our breath. It was a tender moment whilst we marveled in our exploration of one another. I grabbed her hand and kissed the top of it and looked at her smiling. She was smiling too as she gently squeezed my hand after I kissed it.

"Holy shit!" cried Steve. "Next time close the goddamn door. Are you two that much in heat you can't take two seconds to close the door?!"

Our attention snapped to Steve, who we just realized was there.

"Fuck," said Andie when she saw that Steve had just walked in on us. She turned over so she was lying on her stomach and reached for the blanket that we threw to the ground to cover herself.

"What the hell are you doing just barging into someone's room?" she asked bitterly to Steve.

"It's not bargaining in if the door's open!" snapped Steve. "And, it's not like you were being quiet either!"  
"Well that's even worse! You hear us and you still come in! Perv!" she cried.

"I thought someone was in trouble. With all your shrieking and banging the wall! It sounded like some wild animal had just gotten caged and was trying to escape!"

Andie glared at him.

"Steve, maybe you can leave?" I asked him, alluding to the fact that he was still in the room and Andie and I were still, well in the middle of something, despite Steve ruining the moment.

"Whatever. I'm closing the door. God, fucking, horny animals," he mumbled the last part as he slammed the door on his way out.

I turned to Andie and saw beneath her pissed off exterior she actually found this incident funny. I started to laugh, making her laugh as we both saw the hilarity in what had just happened.


	22. Chapter 22

I know this one is short - but a small treat for you all for hanging in there with me and to tide you over until the next big chapter. Thanks for sticking with me and this story!

* * *

Once we got dressed we went outside to ease Steve through his troubled mind.

"Well it's about time you come out of hibernation," he said bitterly.

"Don't be nasty just because you aren't getting any," retorted Andie.

Steve glared at her and said, "You can be such a bitch sometimes."

Andie just smiled.

"You guys coming to Buck's tomorrow?" she shouted from the kitchen. "I'm working and apparently it's a huge party."

She came back with a glass of cholocate milk, "But then huge parties are a dime a dozen at Buck's."

Steve shrugged his shoulders, "I may see if Evie wants to do something."

"Atta boy," I said, slugging him in the arm playfully. "I may stop by Buck's for a bit."

"Where is everyone?" asked Andie, bringing up a very good point.

"Well, you realize it is still the afternoon and technically you're supposed to be in class, right?" pointed out Steve.

"Crap!" exclaimed Andie. "Ah shit, I have to get back to school. Gosh Soda, why must your charming good looks make me weak in the knees, casting your spell over me?"

"Stop being dramatic. If you hurry up I can drive us both back. But fix your hair and your clothes, cus it's pretty obvious what you were doing," said Steve.

Andie rushed to get her things together, "Why are you in class now?"

"Lunch," Steve simply stated.

She nodded in acknowledgement.

"Okay lets go!" she said, basically out the door already. "See ya' later Sodapop! You should probably get to work…"

It was now my turn to realize that I didn't go into work today. To make it worse I didn't even call in to say I wasn't going to show up. I just didn't show up. This was not good.


	23. Chapter 23

"I thought you had work today Soda," said Darry as he walked in the door. He had an early day today and had I gone to work he would've been home before both me and Pony, which was a rarity.

"I forgot I was scheduled," I lied.

"Hmm, funny, I thought you had your DX shirt on when I left this morning," he said.

"I did, I just somehow ended up back at home instead of the shop," I told him, making up lies as Darry continued to talk to me.

"Well, did you at least call your boss and explain?" he asked.

"Yeah, I did."

"And, what did he say?"

"He was chill, but told me not to let it happen again, if it does he's docking my pay and cutting back my hours. Don't worry Darry, it won't happen again," I added quickly.

Darry stared at me real hard before simply letting it go.

"It's okay, little buddy, we all make the occasion slip up. Just don't let them cost you your job. We can't afford it."

"I know," I sighed.

I wish mom and dad were still alive; it would make things so much easier. It would have relived Darry of having to look after Pony and myself; he could've gone to college and made something out of himself, not settling on a job just to make ends meet. Maybe I wouldn't have dropped out of high school, but stuck it through just so mom and dad could see me at graduation, receiving my diploma. I know it had been a dream of theirs to see me graduate, they knew how difficult school was for me, we'd celebrate in our own little way when I would bring home any grade on a test higher than a C-, which wasn't very often. If they were still alive, Pony wouldn't be having nightmares and would be able to concentrate purely on school without the constantly nagging fear of ending up in a boy's home. They, especially Mom, would know exactly how to handle the issues Andie has been dealing by relating with her on a level that neither Darry nor I nor any of the gang could ever begin to comprehend. Had they not gotten into the car that night, we'd still be a family. Sure, things would still be difficult and we'd still be Greasers, but we would've had some sort of safety blanket in this big, scary world, telling us everything would be okay. But the truth is they're no longer physically here with us and we must survive and learn this thing called life on our own. At least we had one another to lean on.

I had decided to go to Buck's party tonight. After fearing losing my job earlier today I needed to have some fun and take my mind off of things. And at the very least I knew Andie would be there working. By the time I reached Buck's things were raging. Andie was right, this was a huge party. I mean we all know how notorious Buck's is for partying, but even this was out of hand. I could hear the music blasting from a couple blocks away and when I got a bit closer it sounded like a fight broke out.

Sure enough, a fight was going on when I reached there. It was Tim Shepard and Dallas Winston going at one another. Probably brawling over some God-forsaken issue that neither of them had an interest in, but used as a cover to let off some steam. I made my way over to the bar to see Andie.

"You weren't kidding, things are crazy around here," I said once I reached the bar, taking the last open bar stool.

"You're going to have to speak up!" she yelled. "Things are a lot louder than normal; I can barely hear myself think!"

"Things are really chaotic tonight!" I shouted.

She nodded her head in agreement.

"It's been going on like this for a few hours now," she shouted in reply. "I can't wait to get off, it's too crazy even for me."

For her to say that, it must have been a hell of a night. Normally it was her and Two-Bit causing some of the chaos and commotion, but I guess it's different when you're on the other side of the calamity and have to witness it sober.

"What time do you end?" I asked her.

"Whenever Buck says I can go," her eyes darkened as she said that. "I was supposed to get off at 2, but Sam called in saying he couldn't make it tonight. Something about being sick, he sounded high off his ass though. That bastard. Now I have to cover for him."

"Ouch. Sorry about that And," I told her. Really, I sympathized having to work an almost 12 hour shift at a bar, especially on a night like tonight was physically, emotionally, and mentally grueling.

"Are Tim and Dally still going at it?" she asked as she headed to the other side of the counter to throw away a few empty beer bottles.

"They when I walked in. I don't know about now. Buck may have pulled them off each other," I said.

As if on cue, I saw Buck yank Dally off of Tim, practically sending him flying into the wall. Dally was still pissed off and turned towards Buck, subjecting him to be his new target of intention as opposed to Tim. You could hear him yelling even over the music. Everyone's attention was fully on Dally and Buck when, without warning the cops arrived.

"Alright!" yelled one of the cops. "Everyone stay where you are!"

One of the cops had already made his way towards Dally, cuffing him. I could see him mouthing off to the cop, but was unable to make anything he said out. I turned to Andie. She was wide eyed, not quite sure what to do, Buck hadn't prepared her for something like this. Sure cops were called before, but they had always stayed outside, this was one of the rare occasions in which they were coming inside to take a look around. This could potentially be bad news for Buck.

Somehow Buck had made his way back to the bar.

"Andie, get out from behind the bar now!" he ordered her in a low, stern voice.

She gave him a questioning look.

"Now!" he quietly yelled at her. "You're underage! We're both gonna get in a lot of trouble."

But it was too late. A young looking officer had already made his way to the bar.

"You the owner of this…establishment?" he asked Buck.

"Yes, sir," he grumbled.

"Very well, if you could go see the sergeant over there, we have a few questions to ask you," said the officer. "And I'm going to have to verify the ages of all of your … employees."

He scribbled something in his notepad as he turned his attention to the bar.

"I'm going to need your name and id-," he said, stopping midway. "Andie?"

"Officer Will?" she asked surprised.

"You know him, Ands?" I asked her.

"Yeah, he's the one that was there the night we got taken in," she explained.

Things were starting to make sense. He was the officer that had spoken to Andie, that caused Jimmy to attack her during school.

"Andie," sighed Will. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to take you downtown."

"What? Why?" she asked.

"You're underage and working the bar, that's illegal."

"Well, then shouldn't that be taken up with the management or owner?" she asked.

"That's why the sergeant wanted to speak with Buck, but since we know you're under 21, he'll probably be facing some fines, maybe some time in jail as well. Now, will you please come with me down to the station. We can either do this the hard way or the easy way."

Slowly Andie made her way out from behind the bar.

She paused when she got to me and whispered in my ear, "Don't hate me," before giving me a kiss on the cheek and grabbed my hand, giving it a light squeeze.

Confused I watched her make her way out of Buck's, Will following her. As soon as she got outside she started in a dead sprint. That took Will by surprise and he dashed off trying to catch her. I rushed out the door watching, silently hoping Andie would get away. But, alas, she didn't; Will tackled her, pinned her to the ground and cuffed her. He led her back to his squad car that was parked in front of Buck's. Her fleeing will most like add an additional charge against her, maybe I was wrong, maybe her and Dally were more alike than I thought. Maybe she was going to end up being the female version of Dally Winston. But as I saw her looking at me through the window of the police car, I saw something in her eyes. It wasn't hurt, or fear, but sadness. Upon seeing that, I knew that she could never end up like Dally because Dally has never been able to understand sadness or let it consume him. Even though she denies it and rarely lets any of us guys see it, I know she still has sadness within her. And at this very moment I can see it and for once there is nothing I can do for her to help her. She's completely on her own.

* * *

How are you liking the story development?

I'm on an updating role! whoohoo. =D Let's see if we can hit 20 reviews. Can we do it? I think we can! for reading.


	24. Chapter 24

Once they got to the station they un-cuffed Andie and led her to a cell. Second visit within a month, this did not look good and would significantly lower her chances of getting into a good college.

"Well, Andie," started Officer Will when he reached her cell. "Had you not attempted to flee the scene, you would have been out of here quickly, seeing as your employment was not technically your fault. However, because you ran, it can be seen as resisting arrest and can lengthen your sentence."

Andie inwardly groaned. She now realized how stupid it had been to try and run away. But, in truth she knew she couldn't afford being arrested anymore.

"I'll make you a deal though, Andie," he said.

Her ears pricked up upon hearing the word "deal."

"If you tell me who previously attacked you, I'll drop this from your record. After the report from Becky and upon looking into your hospital stay after your attack, finding the perpetrators has come up high on our priority list. Any information you may have, will be very useful for us," he explained.

She hesitated to respond. Andie weighed her options; she couldn't afford for this incident to make its way onto her record, but she also knew what may happen if she ratted out Jimmy. He had been kind enough to give her a little demonstration.

"Well, when you decide, just give me a holler. I'll be at the desk. Think about it, Andie. Take the deal and move on with your life. Think of this as a second chance; get a better job. Stay out of trouble. Make something of your life," said Will as he went back to his desk to do paper work, leaving Andie in her cell to mull over her choices.


	25. Chapter 25

The only thing worse than living through a traumatic experience, is reliving the experience, over and over again. Having to retell it to each soul that asks, wanting to help you through your issues. It's bad enough having those memories and experiences remain with you for the rest of your life, but it's even worse to have to share them with others. Telling the story isn't even the worst part; the worse part is the questions that come once you're done telling the stories. The "are you okay now?" The "how does that make you fee?" The crap that professionals are taught to ask you in order to evaluate your sanity and make sure you're deemed to function in society.

This was what happened to Andie once she decided to tell Officer Will her story, making her instantaneously regret agreeing to help them. Even though she knew they were looking out for her best interest, she found the questions and concerns to be bothersome and more harmful than helpful. She wanted them to leave her alone, stop their interrogation, just let things be. But the more she withdrew, the more they wanted to know. The more they pushed, fearing that she was withdrawing into herself because of the incident that happened, not realizing that it was their forceful methods of making her relive each moment that was upsetting her. This went on for the next week. The police released her on the contingency that she came to the station everyday, for the next week, for a few hours to answer their questions. This routine became a tedious part of her day and the drawn out process began to wear on her physically, emotionally, and mentally.

"Darry!" called Ponyboy from the bathroom. He had just gotten home from track and was complaining about shin splints.

"What?" he yelled back.

"I can't find the aspirin," Pony told Darry.

"What do you mean? I just bought two new bottles of that stuff on Monday," he told him.

Between Pony starting track and the amount of rumbles that occur, this house is barely without aspirin.

"Well, there isn't any of it in the medicine cabinets," Pony said.

"Weird, I'll buy you a bottle tomorrow. Just gotta suffer through the pain for tonight," Darry teased him.

"It's okay, I'll run to the store now," I hollered to them. If I went that was one less thing for Darry to have to do after he got off the late shift tomorrow.

A midst rummaging through my drawers for a clean shirt my hand hit a foreign object and it rattled. I pulled it out and realized it was one of the new bottles of aspirin, which was weird because I don't use aspirin unless I have a fever or pulled a muscle.

"Hey Pony! Here's one of the bottles, I found it in my room," I said tossing it to him.

"Thanks Soda. What was it doing in your room? And why is it half empty? Didn't we just get this on Monday?" he asked me.

"Yeah, I don't know," I honestly said.

He shrugged his shoulders and went to kitchen to get some water to take the pills.

"Shit Andie, I'm glad you're out of the cooler and all, but you're killing my mood," said Steve.

"What's it to you Steve, I'm not doing shit. I'm just sitting here minding my own damn business. Leave me alone," she spat back to him.

"What the hell is your problem? Ever since you got released all you do is bitch and moan!" he argued.

Andie stormed off from the couch and slammed my bedroom door behind her.

"Do you have to be so mean Steve? Obviously their interrogation is draining her," I told him, trying to reason with him.

"Whatever, you see Dally being pulled down to the station for questioning all the time, doesn't affect his mood," Steve grumbled.  
"Really? I'll let you mull over what you just said," I told him. "Dally getting hauled into the station only puts him in a worse mood than he already is."

Steve rolled his eyes, but shut up.

"You know I'm right though," he told me. "All she does is just exist and take up space. She doesn't speak unless spoken to and she barely does anything! If someone didn't put food in front of her she wouldn't eat! She can't just keep living in this void."

"Are you actually concerned for someone other than yourself right now?" I asked him, raising an eyebrow.

"Shut up. But you know what I'm saying is true," he said.

"I guess you're right. I guess someone should talk to her about it," I agreed.

"Yeah, go talk to her," he said.

I sighed, not really wanting to, but knew it was for the best if I went, seeing as she'd be the most receptive to my opinions.

"Andie?" I called out as I knocked on my door. I waited for a response; I got silence.

"Andie?" I called again. Again no response.

"Andie," I said for the third time. "I'm coming in."

I opened the door to the room my room, which I was sharing with Andie for the time being, and once I fully took in the scene, my mind went blank.

"Steve!" I yelled. "Steve, get in here quick. I need your help!"

"What?" he said as he ran to the door frame. His eyes widened at the sight.

"Fuck," he mumbled.

I stared at him helplessly, my mind was unable to think of any logical solution due to shock, adrenaline, concern, worry, fright, and a garble of emotions flooding me at once.

"Is she breathing?" Steve finally asked.

* * *

CLIFFHANGER!  
Sorry for the delay friends.  
Honestly, I ran out of inspiration for a bit and was toying with different ideas. But I think I know where this is going to go now.  
Let me know what you all think. Any guesses as to what happened?  
Also - a one shot will be posted later on this weekend. You should def. check it out! It's about how the gang first met.


	26. Chapter 26

"Yeah, she is," I sighed in relief once I felt a pulse.

"Andie," said Steve sternly. "Get up."

He shook her hard enough to get her to open her eyes.

She mumbled something inaudible.

"Come on, you gotta get up," he ordered, pulling her arm until she came to a sitting position.

"I just want to sleep," she mumbled.

"Well tough shit, you should've thought of that before you got yourself into this mess. Stand up," he told her.

Steve led her to the bathroom while I cleaned up the room before anyone else came home. The aspirin bottle had fallen to the ground and spilled its remnants onto the floor.

"How much did you take?" I heard Steve ask her in the bathroom.  
I couldn't catch her answer.

Once I finished cleaning the room and throwing away the aspirin I went to the bathroom. Andie was hunched over the toilet while Steve was attempting to make her throw up whatever she consumed.

"I don't like throwing up," she said dazed.

"Well I don't like seeing you being so pathetic, but it's something we have to suffer through, so just do it," Steve said bitterly.

Steve doesn't have the best bedside manners, but at this point it was better to have him order her around than me. I would've been too compassionate and right now what Andie needed was some command, someone to make her do something for herself. She needed someone to be the bad guy.

"I want to go to sleep," she said with her eyes closed.

"You can, as soon as you throw up," I told her. "Come on Andie, this is important. You have to do this."

She nodded her head no.

"This is taking too long, the longer we wait the worse she's going to get!" said an exasperated Steve.

He held Andie's nose to force her to breath out her mouth. As soon as her mouth opened he stuck his fingers down her throat, causing her to gag enough to make her throw up. She mainly threw up bile, but about a dozen pills came up as well.

"Ugh," said Steve once he pulled his fingers out of her mouth. They were covered in saliva and bile. He thoroughly washed his hands twice, before he was satisfied.

"How many did you take?" I asked Andie.

She shrugged her shoulders, "Sixteen? Eighteen? Idunno I lost count."

I threw Steve a worried glance; he shrugged.

"Wash your mouth out," Steve told her.

She complied without protest.

"I want to go to sleep," she repeated.

I sighed, "Alright, you can take the bed."

"Don't think you're getting off this easily," warned Steve. "We're having an intervention with you when you wake up."

"Yeah, yeah," she murmured. Andie curled into a ball, burrowed under the sheets, pulled the blanket over her head and fell fast asleep.

I heard the bedroom door open and knew that Andie was awake. Boy was she in for a surprise once she comes into the living room. After her incident, I called Darry and told him what happened and Steve told Two-Bit and Dally. Everyone agreed to confront her about this once she was awake, although Dally was so pissed he almost went in and killed Andie himself for doing something that was, in his words, "fucking crazyass bullshit."

"Andie," said Darry in a stern, but soft voice. "Please come to the living room."

Andie obliged Darry and came in to find me, Darry, and Steve there. We thought it best to confront with as little people as possible. Seeing how it was me and Steve who found her and Darry being the only "adult" it made sense for us to intervene. However, once Andie saw it was the three of us in the room she hesitated coming in and started to slowly back out of the room.

"Stop trying to run away and take a seat," said Steve.

Andie studied him for a bit before complying.

"Well, there's no easy way to put this but, Andie, we're worried about you. The whole gang is worried about you," started Darry. "I can understand why you're withdrawing into yourself, but you don't need to push us away. We're family, Andie and we care about you."

Andie was silent.

"Seeing you last night scared me. I thought you were dead," I confessed. "If one little comment from Steve could push you over the edge and do something like that, what's going to happen when something else that's bigger happens? You're frightening me."

"I'm fine guys. It was just one incident. I just had a headache and accidentally took too much. Aspirin barely does anything for me," she attempted to explain.

"Bull shit," said Steve. "That was no accident. No one accidentally takes eighteen aspirins in one sitting. What'd you do lose count?! You're so selfish you know that Andie. Doing a stupid stunt like that. What if you died, huh? Do you know who that'd hurt? Us. But obviously you don't care enough about us to suck it up and toughen out the hard parts of life; you just want to take the easy way out."

This took Andie aback, she was clearly not expecting this. I could tell she was starting to get pissed at Steve.

"You know what Steve, don't you dare comment about my actions. You don't fucking know what my life has been like. I live through hell everyday. My parents hate me and wish I were dead, they barely acknowledge my existence and don't care. My step-father used me as a fucking fuck buddy since I was twelve and beats me for no goddamn reason. Then, I was gang raped and attacked by those crazy ass socs. Do NOT tell me to suck it up. I've been sucking it up and toughing it out for the past sixteen years of life and trust me from where I'm standing it doesn't look like my life has a silver lining!" she screamed.

By this point she was so emotionally worked up that she started to hyperventilate. She couldn't catch her breath and kept breathing harder until she completely broke down into tears.

Shocked, Steve looked at me. This was probably the second or third time I'd seen Andie cry. For her to cry things were deeply upsetting her. I went over to her and wrapped an arm around her, embracing her tightly trying to soothe her and calm her down.

"Andie," said Darry. "We just want you back. We want to make sure you're okay. The whole gang is here for you."

"Yeah, we are. You should know that by now. Even though we forget you're a girl half the time, you're still our sister," Steve reminded her.

"We love you," I told her. "And if you were to leave us, it would kill all of us. We'd miss you so much; I'd miss you so much. Please, Andie, just promise me you won't mask these emotions with drugs or anything else anymore. We just want to get you back to your old self. We miss you."

And then I saw it, the hint of sadness, disgust, hate, and shame in her eyes. I could tell she hated herself.

"I promise," she barely whispered.

I smiled happy she was at least willing to attempt to try.

"I don't know if I'll be able to keep that promise though," she confessed. "I just, I just hate the fact that I allowed it to happen and I couldn't stop it. Any of it."

"What're you talking about Andie? None of these things were your fault! You were the victim!" said Steve, trying to get her to see the events as we saw them. "Why would you hate yourself and beat yourself up over it? That's stupid."

Andie looked at the ground and shrugged, her lips moved to the right side of her face.

"Idunno. Look, I have a massive headache, are we done? I want to go back to bed," she said.

Darry sighed, "Go ahead."

I guess Darry knew that we weren't going to get anywhere with this conversation today. But at least we were able to tell Andie how we felt and hopefully that will eventually settle in with her. I hope she realizes just how much we all care about her and love her. I just hope we weren't too late in seeing the devastating effects everything that has happened to Andie had on her and her self worth. I don't know what I'd do without her in my life.

* * *

Almost done with the story all. Thanks for bearing with me and sorry for the lack of updates.  
Hope you enjoyed this chapter - review if you feel led to!


	27. Chapter 27

"Where is she!" roared Dally when he came into the house. "I swear that girl is an idiot, doing that stupid ass stunt. I swear I'm going to give her a piece of my mind!"

"Dally, calm down," sighed Darry. "She went to bed. And I don't think yelling at her will do much good. She's not very receptive to anything right now."

Dally clenched his jaw, but didn't say anything.

"So what are we going to do about her?" asked Two-Bit.

"Just let her be, for now and watch her. I mean if we just leave her to fend for herself, that'll just confirm everything she thinks about people around her," said Darry.

"Ugh! This is just so..so frustrating. What is her problem!" yelled Dally unable to fully comprehend the situation.

"Let it go, Dal," said Steve, trying to rationalize with Dally in his emotional state. This only caused Dally to storm out of the house just as angry as he arrived.

"Is she up?" asked Two-Bit. "Can I see her?"

Steve shrugged.

I told him, "We haven't heard from her since she went back to bed. I guess it'd be a good thing for someone to check up on her. Go see if she's up."

Two-Bit went to my room, I followed behind, but hung back by the door frame as he went inside.

"Hi-ya, Ands," he said in a cheery voice, I guess she was awake.

"Hey Two-Bit," she said softly. "So I'm guessing you heard what happened, huh?"

I saw him nod his head.

"Not my finest hour," she laughed darkly.

"I suppose not. But we can't always have our act together all the time," he acknowledged.

"You're not going to lecture me too, are you?"

"Nah, come on Ands, you know me better than that. Who am I to lecture you? I'm almost a borderline functioning alcoholic!" he joked.

How Two-Bit was able to joke during a serious talk is beyond me, but it's Two-Bit so I don't think about that much.

In any case, it caused Andie to chuckle.

"Please don't call yourself a functioning alcoholic, because if you're one, what does that make me? I drink just as much as you do!" she joked with him.

This just goes to show how contagious Two-Bit's humor is.

"Two-Bit," sighed Andie. "I really screwed up. I made a mistake and what I did was stupid. I guess I should go apologize for giving them all a fright. I just- I just- I just feel like there's no hope left in the world for me. I know Darry keeps telling me that I have the chance to get out of here and make something of myself, but I just don't see it. I don't see what he sees. I'm nothing."

"Andie, don't say that. You're something, not nothing. But there's always hope, no matter how bleak your life might seem. The world keeps turning, people keep moving, your life keeps on going. It's up to you to decide how well you want to live your life," Two-Bit said in a rare moment of seriousness.

"Well, look at you, getting all philosophical and deep and shit," she said.

"Ah, well you know me, I like it when I can get deep," he winked.

"God Two-Bit, must you be so sexual all the time?" Andie asked.

"I'm a sexual being, sue me!"

I rolled my eyes at that.

"Hey And," I said finally going inside the room. "How you feeling?"

"Mmky," she said. "Listen, Soda, I'm sorry about the other day. I didn't mean to scare and I just want you to know that I do care about you all and I didn't think I was being selfish. I guess in my emotional state I just did what I did as a reaction. I also guess that in that state I thought that you guys would be better off without me. I know that my attitude lately has been dragging everyone down; I could tell, but I just couldn't pull myself out of it. What I did was a mistake. I'm so, so sorry."

She stood up from the bed and enveloped me into a gigantic hug and buried her head in my neck. I could feel her trembling in my arms.

"I'm sorry Soda. I'm so sorry," she whispered into my neck.

"I know," I cooed. "I know. It's okay. You're going to be okay. Everything's going to be fine."

When she finally pulled out of the embrace, I took a step back to look at her. She looked beat. Her eyes looked tired and aged, dark circles had formed underneath her eyes. The past couple of had made her lose a considerable amount of weight, which paled her skin and made her look sickly. I could feel her hip bones dig into me when she hugged me and her bony spine as I rubbed her back to comfort her. Going from the kidnapping, to admittance to the hospital, to her depressed state, Andie hadn't gotten a lot of nourishment and it showed. We all had noticed it, but none of us had said anything in fear of pushing her further over the edge.

"I'm glad you're finally realizing that this state you've been in isn't healthy," I told her honestly.

She just nodded in agreement, her eyes staring at the floor. I looked at Two-Bit, worriedly, not knowing how Andie would react to what I just said.

"I know and I want to change. But I don't think it'll be as fast and easy as you all want it to be," she finally said.

"We realize that Andie and, well I can't speak for everyone else, but I'll be there for you every step of the way," I reassured her.

"Me too," said Two-Bit, as he ruffled her hair as he left the room. It was just Andie and me in the room now.

Andie sighed as Two-Bit left the room and grabbed the pillow from the top of the bed and hugged it between her knees and chest.

"Hey Andie," I said, getting her attention.

"Yeah?" she answered looking at me.

"I realize that this may not be the right to tell you this, but I love you," I told her.

"I love you too, Soda," she said with a small smile.

"No, I love you Andie. I love you," I emphasized "love" the second time, hoping she'd catch the point. I guess she did because her eyes widened a bit.

"Oh," she said softly, her lips made a small "o" shape. She was silent for a moment or two before she began to speak.

"Soda, I love you too. I love you a lot, but…" her voice trailed off. Her eyes wandered off into space.

I was just about to say something when she broke the silence.

"Had you told me this a couple of months ago, before shit hit the fan, I would've reciprocated your feelings one hundred percent. I truly do love you Sodapop, but right now, I just can't…" she broke eye contact with me.

"I understand hun, but I'll always be here for you, you dig? I'll wait until you feel ready," I explained to her.

"Soda, I'm going to tell you this because I love you. I don't want you waiting for me. I don't know if I'll ever be ready or ever really get over this. I don't want to drag you down with me and make you miss out on having a normal relationship. I mean you date me, well, you know about my rubbish past and that's going to be dragged into our future together. I don't want you to have to deal with that. That's not fair for you. It's not fair for me to expect that of you. I want you to be happy, more than anything in the world. I want you to have a girlfriend who hasn't gone through all of my issues. You deserve better. You deserve a girl who'll make you feel like there's not a care in the world. You deserve the perfect girl, a perfect family, a perfect life; that's what you deserve," she told me.

"But Andie, there's no such thing as perfect. And even if there was, my life will never be perfect without you in it," I explained, almost pleading.

She gave me a sympathy smile, her sheepish eyes started to lose focus, as though she was thinking about something, remembering a past memory.

"Remember when we were eight?" she said, the memory coming to life.

I looked at her quizzically.

"We were climbing the tree in the park and we got pretty high up before stopping. We sat on that branch, for God knows how long. We just sat there, next to each other, holding hands because we didn't know that boys and girls didn't hold hands just for the hell of it. But there we were, high above pedestrian life, watching the birds in the sky, watching the people passing by, just being in the moment. Do you remember?"

I nodded, I remembered it clearly now, as though it were yesterday. I smiled at the memory.

"Things were so much simpler back then. I long for those days," she confessed. "If only I were wiser and knew that things wouldn't stay that way, I would've cherished those little moments more."

I reached to grab her hand. When my hand embraced hers, it seemed to knock her out of her trance and she shifted her full attention back to me.

"Anyway, what I was trying to say was, I had my magical moments with you. It's time for you to share those with someone else. There's a ton of girls that want to date you, trust me, I hear them talking about you all the time at school. Any of them would be lucky to have you. Please experience those simple moments with someone else; give them a shot."

"But you're the one, Andie," I said to her. "You're the one that I want."

"But how do you know I'm the one Soda, if you date anyone else? Right now I'm in no state to be in a relationship, I mean look at me, I'm a mess, physically, emotionally, mentally; I'm not healthy for you. I'll eat away at you like a parasite," she responded.

I opened my mouth to try and cut her off, but she kept talking, not giving me the opportunity to try and protest.

"Soda, please, do this for me. Just move on, at least for now. If, in a year or two, you still love me and I still love you, then we'll try it out. But right now, it's not a wise idea. Trust me. You deserve happiness," she pleaded.

I looked into her eyes and saw the seriousness in them and that's what made me stop. Stop trying to argue with her and let it go. I knew I wasn't going to win this one. If I could wait sixteen years to tell her I loved her, then what's two more years. I'll prove her wrong; I'll prove to her that I will always love her and that she is the one for me.

"As much as I hate what I'm about to say, I'll try to move on. If that's what's going to make you happy, I'll do it. But Andie, I'll always be here for you," I told her.

"I know," she said.

She came over to me and hugged me and whispered in my ear, "Thank you."

* * *

Thank you all for reading.  
I truly enjoyed writing this story and greatly appreciate everyone who has taken time to read this and review.  
I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it.  
I'm toying with the idea of an epilogue, but just in case that doesnt happen, thank you for all you're support.

Review if you feel so obliged to.

Oh, one last thing... The End.


	28. Epilogue

Thanks to FireGoddess101 and guest for alerting me on my mistake. Here's the correct epilogue.  
Sorry for the confussion!

* * *

Over the course of the next year, a lot of things changed. Andie no longer lives in the house with us; she moved in with her biological father, a few blocks away. We were all hesitant about her decision, but in the end we couldn't really stop her. She attempted to reassure us that nothing her father could do to her would compare to what she experienced in the past; we just hoped she was right. She no longer speaks to her mom and step-dad and only intermittently sees Becky. Andie cut them out of her life, which was for the better.

Andie was able to get her job back at Buck's, she's more careful about not getting caught behind the bar. She picked up more shifts in order to pay off her debt quicker and she's still adhering to her promise to Darry, saving to pay for college. As a result we rarely see her anymore; it almost feels as though we parted ways. On the occasion we do all hang out, it's like old times, we joke and laugh around, cherishing those moments. On her rare nights off she's either studying, sleeping, or out with her boyfriend

She started dating Tim Shepard on and off a few months after her incident. While it initially hurt to see her with Tim, it gave me the motivation to actually move on from her. I currently have a girlfriend, her name's Sandy, things couldn't be going better between the two of us; I love Sandy a lot, it wouldn't surprise me if I ended up marrying her one day. I suppose Tim and Andie are a good match for one another, both have been through a lot of shit in their lifetimes and are as tough as nails, but there's this feeling I can't shake that something's going to happen between the two of them.

But for the time being, we're all just living in the moment.  
We're just living this life trying to make sure every minute of it counts.


End file.
